tihYavy  of  Che  Cheolojical  ^emmarjp 

PRINCETON    .    NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

Dr.  Henry  S.  Gehman 
BX  8080  .S25  S3  1921 
Sandt,  Geo.  W.  1854-1931. 
Theodore  Emanuel  Schmauk,  D 
D.,  LL.  D. 


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Theodore  Emanuel  Schmauk,  D.D.,  LLD. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

With  Liberal  Quotations  from  his  Letters  and 
other  Writings 


BY 

GEORGE  W.  SANDT 


PHILADELPHIA 
UNITED  LUTHERAN  PUBLICATION  HOUSE 

1921 


Copyright,  1921 

BY 

GEORGE     W.     SA  N  DT 


3  mutft  tuorfa  tfie  tnocbs  of  i)im  tijat  sent  me,  tntiUe  it  ii 
bap:  tt)e  nfgi)t  comett).  totien  no  man  can  tooth.        John  9:4. 


tliie  jeal  of  tfjfne  fjonae  tjatl)  eaten  me  up.     John  2:17. 


PREFACE 

IN  presenting  this  portraiture  of  the  remarkably  re- 
sourceful, versatile  and  many-sided  Dr.  Schmauk, 
the  author  feels  that  very  much  of  value  has  been 
left  unsaid.  Much  of  great  interest  and  value  in  the  form 
of  sermons,  addresses,  excerpts  and  other  biographical 
material  was  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  it  was  not  easy  to 
decide  what  to  select  and  what  to  reject.  Dr.  Schmauk 
explored  so  many  fields  of  knowledge,  touched  so  many 
spheres  of  usefulness  and  influence,  and  affixed  the  im- 
press of  his  personality  upon  so  many  activities  and 
movements  as  to  make  the  task  of  presenting  a  well-pro- 
portioned sketch  of  his  life  and  work  difficult.  An  effort 
has  been  made,  however,  to  picture  him  in  as  life-like 
and  realistic  a  manner  as  possible.  To  do  this,  it  was 
necessary  to  disregard  in  large  measure  the  chronological 
sequence  of  events  in  his  life  and  to  defy  logical  order 
by  thrusting  in  here  and  there,  more  or  less  wantonly, 
incidents  and  side-lights  that  might  add  to  the  truthful- 
ness of  the  picture. 

The  work  of  preparing  this  biography,  in  spite  of  the 
pressure  of  other  tasks,  proved  to  be  most  interesting 
and  inspiring.  The  writer,  though  a  classmate  of  Dr. 
Schmauk  at  the  Seminary  and  associated  with  him  in 
editorial  and  other  work  for  twenty-five  years,  made 
many  a  discovery  touching  Dr.  Schmauk's  work  and 
his  real  inner  worth  of  which  he  had  not  been  aware  be- 
fore. Dr.  Schmauk's  life  was  too  busy  to  make  intimate 
and  frequent  personal  intercourse  with  him  possible. 
Hence  much  that  was  both  new  and  refreshing  came  to 
light  while  entering  into  an  examination  of  the  material 
which  gave  an  insight  into  the  inner  workings  of   his 


viii  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

mind  and  placed  his  life  and  character  in  richer  and  fuller 
perspective. 

Whait  has  deeply  impressed  the  writer  of  this  biog- 
raphy is  the  absolute  uniqueness  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  per- 
sonality. His  life  and  character  defies  all  ordinary 
standards  of  measurement.  It  is  as  different  from  the 
lives  of  such  leaders  as  Krauth,  Seiss,  Krotel  and  Spaeth 
as  is  a  resistless  mountain  torrent,  broadening  out  into 
many  rivulets  and  cataracts,  to  the  stately  and  majestic 
flow  of  the  Mississippi.  There  was  a  big-heartedness, 
a  perennial  ardor  and  enthusiasm,  a  tremendous  serious- 
ness and  earnestness  of  purpose,  a  childlike  simplicity 
and  naturalness,  and  a  sympathetic  warmth  and  tender- 
ness, that  won  for  him  a  place  in  the  life  and  affections 
of  the  Church  occupied  by  few  men.  He  touched  the 
life  of  the  Church  at  more  points  than  any  other 
Lutheran  personality  in  America.  He  was  a  veritable 
storage  battery,  with  innumerable  connecting  wires  to 
transmit  sparks  of  influence  and  power  far  and  wide 
throughout  the  Church,  and  beyond.  He  was  the  most 
ecumenical  and  inspirational  Lutheran  America  has  yet 
produced — length,  breadth,  height  and  depth  combining 
to  give  him  massiveness  in  body,  mind  and  spirit.  The 
author  could  do  no  other  but  write  this  biography  under 
the  spell  of  such  an  estimate  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  worth. 
Much  as  he  tried,  he  found  it  impossible  to  bind  him- 
self to  a  purely  objective  method  of  treatment. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  present  to  the  reader 
with  some  fullness  what  Dr.  Schmauk  stood  for.  He 
ranks  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  consistent  defenders 
of  the  Lutheran  faith.  His  catholicity  of  spirit  enabled 
him  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  his  opponent  and 
see  things   from  the  latter's  point  of  view.     This  gave 


PREFACE  ix 

him  an  advantage  over  most  Lutheran  defenders  of  the 
faith  and  saved  him  from  the  charge  of  narrowness  and 
bigotry.  And  yet  he  never  swerved  from  the  strong 
conservative  position  he  always  took  by  making  weak 
or  compromising  concessions.  The  quotations  given  in 
the  biography  and  in  the  supplement  will  bear  out  what 
has  thus  been  said  of  him  as  a  forceful  defender  of  the 
faith.  Only  such  parts  in  past  controversies  are  brought 
out  in  this  biography  which  seemed  necessary  to  give  a 
correct  perspective. 

The  author  acknowledges  gratefully  the  valuable  as- 
sistance and  co-operation  of  the  Literature  Manager  of 
the  Publication  Board,  W.  L.  Hunton,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  to 
whom  he  is  indebted  for  an  account  of  Dr.  Schmauk's 
services  as  editor  of  the  Graded  Series  of  Sunday  School 
Lessons.  Dr.  Hunton  had  been  associated  with  him  in 
this  work  for  many  years.  He  has  also  prepared  the 
Index.  Prof.  E.  E.  Fischer,  D.D.,  and  Rev.  Arthur  H. 
Getz,  one  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  promising  students  at  the 
Seminary,  who  acted  as  his  private  secretary,  have 
furnished  an  estimate  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  services 
as  teacher  of  Apologetics,  Ethics  and  related  subjects 
at  Mt.  Airy.  As  Dr.  H.  E.  Jacobs  was  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  Dr.  Schmauk  for  many  years  in  maintaining 
the  standards  of  faith  to  which  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  committed,  and  as  he  was  in  a  position  to  know  him 
and  his  worth  as  few  men  knew  him,  a  liberal  use 
has  been  made  of  what  Dr.  Jacobs  has  so  well  said  at 
different  intervals  and  under  varying  circumstances. 
Last  but  not  least,  the  writer  acknowledges  his  indebted- 
ness to  the  surviving  sister  of  Dr.  Schmauk,  upon  whom 
he  relied  for  much  valuable  information  that  could  not 
otherwise  have  been  secured. 

GEO.  W.  SANDT 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
ScHMAUK  Antecedents    1 

CHAPTER  H 
Birth  and  Boyhood 6 

CHAPTER  HI 
Student  at  College 15 

CHAPTER  IV 
Student  at  Seminary 26 

CHAPTER  V 
Early   Pastorate    37 

CHAPTER  VI 
Literary  Activities  Begin 49 

CHAPTER  VII 

As  Educator  60 

The  Pennsylvania  Chautauqua 

CHAPTER  VIII 

As  Historian   66 

The    Pennsylvania    German    and    Lebanon    County 
Societies. 


xii  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

CHAPTER  IX 
As  Editor  and  Sunday  School  Leader 79 

CHAPTER  X 
As  Citizen,  Patriot  and  Public  Speaker 94 

CHAPTER  XI 
Death  of  the  Father 109 

CHAPTER  XII 
President  of  the  General  Council 117 

CHAPTER  XIII 
The  Confessional  High  Water  Mark 127 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Administrative  Problems — Dr.  Schmauk  and  the 

Germans — Relations  With  the  Iowa  Synod ....    141 

CHAPTER  XV 

A    Trying    Convention — Dr.    Schmauk    and    the 

Swedes    163 

CHAPTER  XVI 
The    Confessional    Principle — Teacher    at    the 

Seminary 179 

CHAPTER  XVII 
The       Quadri-Centennial       Celebration — The 

Merger  Convention  192 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
The  Closing  of  a  Strenuous  Life 219 


CONTENTS 

DR.  SCHMAUK  ON  LIVE  QUESTIONS 
AND  ISSUES 


1.  On  the   Person  of  Christ    239 

2.  On  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity 240 

3.  On  the  Freedom  of  the  Will 244 

4.  On    Negative    Theology 245 

5.  The   Lutheran   Conception  of    Salvation 246 

6.  On    Confessionalism    247 

7.  Luther  and  the  New  Theology 248 

8.  On    Progressive    Conservatism 249 

9.  On   Lutheran   Union    251 

10.  On  Lutheran   Pulpits   for  Lutheran   Ministers 253 

11.  On  Lutheran  Disunity  255 

12.  On  the  Lodge  and   Pulpit  Fellowship 256 

13.  On    Cooperation    258 

14.  On  Revival  Movements   260 

15.  The  Lutheran  Church  and  External  Relationships 262 

16.  Two   Great   Lessons  of    Providence 275 

17.  The    Church   and    Social    Problems 277 

18.  On   Possibilities   of    Union    280 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


T.  E.  Schmauk Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Benj  amin  W.    Schmauk 1 

Wilhelmina  Schmauk   1 

Benjamin  F.   Schmauk 1 

Boyhood    Pictures    9 

Old  Church  and  Historic  Willow  Tree 13 

Student  at  the  University 33 

Student   in   the    Seminary 33 

The  Old  Parsonage  Built  in  1800 37 

Old    Salem    Church    37 

Interior  of  Old   Salem   Church ^ 37 

Associate  Pastors  of  Salem  Church , 39 

Lebanon  in  the  Forties 41 

St.  Paul's,  Annville,  and  the  Missions 47 

Salem  Parsonage   53 

Chancellor  Schmauk  and  His  Department  Heads,  1895 61 

Mt.  Gretna  Chautauqua  Faculty,  1896 61 

Pennsylvania  German  Society  Seal 66 

A  Face  Familiar  to  Children 81 

Common  Service  Book  Committee  on  Completion  of  Work..     83 

As  a  Public  Speaker   101 

A  Welcome  Service  for  Returned  Soldiers 105 

Interior  of  Old  Salem  Church,  1898,  at  Centennial  Anniversary  109 

Salem  Memorial   Chapel    Ill 

Interior  of   New   Salem    113 

President  of  the  Pennsylvania  German  Society 117 

President  of  the  General   Council 117 

Professor,    Mt.   Airy    165 

President,    Minneapolis     165 

Pastor,    Lebanon    165 

The  Philadelphia  Seminary  Faculty,  1914 183 

The  German  Student  Association  of  the  Theological  Seminary  189 
Ways    and    Means    Committee    for    Organization    of    United 
Lutheran  Church    207 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Schmauk  Antecedents 

People   will  not   look   forimrd    to   posterity,   who   never   look 
backzmrd  to  their  ancestry. — Burke. 

THE  more  immediate  forebears  of  the  Schmauk 
family,  as  known  in  America,  hailed  from 
Wuertemburg,  Germany.  In  1819,  seven  years 
after  the  Napoleonic  wars,  two  brothers,  in  company 
with  a  considerable  band  of  emigrants  from  that  section, 
sailed  from  Holland  on  the  vessel  Susquehanna  and 
landed  in  Philadelphia.  They  were  Johann  Gottfried 
and  Benjamin  Friedrich  Schmauk.  The  former,  being 
the  elder  of  the  two,  then  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  was 
the  leader  of  the  band  and  the  purser  of  the  vessel.  A 
parchment  of  paper,  well  preserved,  contains  the  names 
of  sixty-five  male  emigrants  on  board  the  vessel,  together 
with  the  amounts  of  money  each  had  paid  the  purser. 
They  are  written  in  fine,  legible  style.  The  elder  brother 
was  a  born  teacher  (as  also  were  his  father  and  another 
brother  in  Germany)  and  in  addition  a  high-grade  musi- 
cian, the  author  of  "Schmauk's  Harmonic."  He  had 
been  engaged  as  the  head  of  the  parochial  school  of 
Zion  and  St.  Michael's  Church,  Philadelphia,  of  which 
the  eloquent  and  learned  Dr.  Demme  was  then  pastor. 
He  was  also  the  organist.  Among  his  distinguished 
pupils  in  that  school  were  Gottlieb  F.  Krotel  and  Ben- 
jamin W.  Schmauk,  both  well-known  clerg}'men  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Ministerium.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
force  of  character  and  well-known  in  the  Church. 
B 


2  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Benjamin  Friedrich  who  was  only  nineteen  years  old 
when  he  came  to  this  country,  was  of  a  somewhat  differ- 
ent type,  being  sturdy  and  thrifty  but  less  assertive  and 
aggressive.  Besides  being  a  barber,  he  was  somewhat 
of  a  surgeon,  doing  cupping  and  leeching,  and  perform- 
ing some  minor  operations.  He  was  a  man  of  genial 
disposition  and  quite  domestic  and  affectionate.  A  well- 
preserved  parchment  shows  that  as  soon  as  the  laws 
permitted,  he  applied  to  the  Philadelphia  court  and  be- 
came a  naturalized  citizen  of  the  United  States  in  1825. 
This  parchment  is  his  naturalization  paper,  which  is  now 
one  of  the  family  heirlooms. 

His  wife,  Theresa,  was  a  very  active  and  vivacious 
woman,  and  a  leading  member  of  Zion  Church.  She  died 
in  1875,  shortly  after  the  celebration  of  their  golden  wed- 
ding anniversary. 

When  in  1844,  the  well-known  scholar  and  church  his- 
torian. Dr.  Philip  Schaff,  came  to  America,  he  carried 
a  letter  of  introduction  from  the  parents  of  Wm.  Julius 
Mann  in  Germany  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Benjamin  Schmauk, 
to  whose  fireside  he  was  most  cordially  welcomed.  The 
Manns  and  the  Schmauks  in  Germany  were  related  by 
marriage;  and  when  later,  upon  the  earnest  solicitation 
of  Dr.  Schaff,  William  Julius  Mann,  his  intimaite  and 
life-long  friend,  came  to  this  country  to  serve  a  German 
congregation  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  Philadelphia, 
he  naturally  bore  a  letter  from  his  parents  to  the 
Schmauks  in  whose  home  he  met  with  a  warm  recep- 
tion. There  sprang  up  between  him  and  the  Schmauk 
family  a  lasting  friendship,  made  doubly  strong  and  inti- 
mate because  of  kinship.  To  them  were  born  two  sons 
and  a  daughter — Benjamin,  Emanuel  and  Theresa  (who 
became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Robert  Otto,  a  cousin  of  Dr. 


THE   SCHMAUK   ANTECEDENTS  3 

Mann).  Because  of  Dr.  Mann's  ability  as  a  preacher, 
the  well-known  Dr.  Demme,  recognized  far  and  wide 
as  the  most  eloquent  preacher  in  Pennsylvania,  feeUng 
his  need  of  an  assistant  in  the  Zion-St.  Michael's  parish, 
saw  to  it  that  a  call  was  extended  to  the  young  preacher 
and  he  thus  became  the  pastor  of  the  Schmauk 
family. 

Benjamin  William,  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
was  born  on  October  26,  1828.  After  attending  the  paro- 
chial   school    of    Zion   Church,   he   passed   through   the 
Philadelphia  Grammar  and  High  Schools  and  from  his 
sixteenth  to  his  twentieth  year  served  an  apprenticeship 
at  silver-plating.     Both  Drs.  Demme  and  Mann  recog- 
nized in  this  serious  and  devout  young  man  the  promise 
of  a  useful  career  in  the  ministry  and  induced  him  to 
prepare  for  the  holy  office.     Dr.  Mann  at  once  offered 
his  services  as  preceptor  and  he  became  his  first  theo- 
logical student.     He  later  entered  the  theological  semi- 
nary at  Gettysburg,  and  after  a  brief  course  of  study  in 
that  institution,  he  returned  to  Philadelphia  and  finished 
his  preparation  under  Dr.  Mann  and  was  ordained  in 
Reading  in   1853.     He   immediately  accepted   a  call  to 
Zion  Church,  Lancaster,  Pa.     Four  years  later,  on  the 
25th  day  of  June,  1857,  he  was  married  to  Wilhelmina 
Catherine  Hingel,  of  Philadelphia,  Dr.  Mann  officiating. 
The  wife's  father  died  while  she  was  quite  young.    The 
mother,  a  bright,  vivacious  woman,  was  a  very  devoted 
member  of  Zion  Church  and  an  enthusiastic  worker  of 
the  Frauenverein,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Orphans' 
Home  at  Germantown.     She  is  still  recalled  by  members 
of  Salem  Church,  Lebanon,  Pa.,  where  she  often  visited, 
as  a  person  full  of  wit  and  humor,  of  social,  jovial  dis- 
position and  noted  for  her  hearty  laugh,— a  reminder  of 


4  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

Dr.  Theodore  Schmauk's  well-known  and  hearty  out- 
burst of  laughter. 

Benjamin  W.  Schmauk  was  a  modest,  serious,  devout 
minister  of  the  Gospel  whose  life  did  honor  to  his  pro- 
fession. Although  timid  and  retiring,  he  yet  was  cour- 
ageous, and  ever  stood  up  manfully  for  his  convictions 
and  for  the  defense  of  the  faith.  He  was  conscientious 
and  devoted,  and  a  veritable  Nathanael  in  whom  was  no 
guile.  He  cared  naught  for  honors,  and  thrice  refused 
the  title  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  To  please  God  and  serve 
Him  faithfully  was  his  life  purpose.  There  was  a  rich 
vein  of  humor  in  this  serious-minded  servant  of  God ; 
but  it  had  to  be  called  into  play  by  others,  and  Drs.  Krotel 
and  Schantz  found  no  difficulty  in  giving  it  full  vent. 

His  wife,  Wilhelmina  Catherine,  was  the  type  of  virtu- 
ous woman  described  in  the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs. 
She  proved  to  be  an  ideal  wife  and  mother,  deeply  con- 
cerned in  the  management  of  her  home.  She  knew  well 
how  to  perform  her  duties  as  helpmeet  in  the  work  of 
the  parish.  Undemonstrative  and  unassuming,  she  moved 
among  her  people  with  a  poise  and  a  wisdom  that  easily 
won  their  respect  and  confidence.  Few  parents  wielded 
a  greater  moulding  influence  and  power  upon  the  lives 
of  their  children  than  did  they. 

As  will  thus  be  seen,  the  entire  Schmauk  family,  both 
husbands  and  wives,  were  reared  in  old  Zion  and  St. 
Michael's  Church,  at  a  period  when  the  parish  was  in 
its  most  flourishing  condition.  With  two  such  distin- 
guished preachers  as  Drs.  Demme  and  Mann,  this  twin 
congregation  with  its  two  church  buildings  in  close  prox- 
imity was  recognized  as  easily  the  leading  parish  in  the 
"Old  Mother  Synod."  The  impress  of  the  robust  spir- 
itual life  of  "Old  Zion's,"  under  its  distinguished  leader- 


THE   SCHMAUK   ANTECEDENTS  5 

ship,  was  indelibly  stamped  upon  the  whole  Schmauk 
lineage,  and  it  proved  to  be  a  decisive  factor  in  furnish- 
ing Lancaster,  Allentown,  Lebanon  and  the  whole  Luth- 
eran Church  in  this  country  with  two  Lutheran  pastors 
and  leaders  whose  names  will  not  soon  be  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  II 
Birth  and  Boyhood  (1860  to  1876) 

The  child  is  father  of  the  man, 
And  J  could  wish  my  years  fa  be 
Born  each  to  each  by  natural  piety. 

— Wordsworth. 

IN  the  Schmauk  homestead  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  while 
serving  the  parish  known  as  Zion  Lutheran  Church, 
there  was  born  on  May  30th,  1860,  to  Benjamin 
William  and  Wilhelmina  Catherine  (Hingel)  Schmauk 
a  son,  who  at  his  baptism  shortly  thereafter  was  given  a 
name  expressive  of  the  parents'  gratitude  to  God  and 
prophetic  of  the  child's  future  dedication  to  His  service. 
He  was  called  Theodore  Emanuel.  He  was  a  very  sen- 
sitive and  high-strung  child,  active,  alert  and  of  an  un- 
usually mature  and  inquiring  mind.  In  1864,  the  father 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Salem  parish  in  Lebanon  and  vicin- 
ity, and  about  five  years  thereafter  the  son  took  sick  with 
scarlet  fever,  and  his  life  hung  on  a  thread  for  some 
days  making  full  recovery  extremely  doubtful.  At  the 
same  time,  his  sister,  Theresa,  about  two  years  his  junior, 
was  prostrated  with  the  same  disease  and  her  life,  too, 
was  despaired  of.  Both  recovered,  but  the  traces  of  their 
sicknesses  were  never  fully  wiped  out  in  after  life.  His 
nerves  were  easily  affected  throughout  life  by  jars  of  any 
kind,  such  as  noises,  loud  talking  and  conflicting  emotions, 
and  he  would  at  times  suffer  with  sinking  spells  there- 
from. 
Already  as  a  child  he  was  a  veritable  storehouse  of 


BIRTH    AND    BOYHOOD  X 

nervous  energy — active  and  anxious  to  assist  his  mother 
whatever  her  tasks  might  be.  His  frequent  illnesses  and 
the  kindly  nursing  he  received  made  him  dependent  upon 
a  mother's  love.  He  kept  her  busy  answering  questions 
or  devising  means  whereby  to  keep  him  employed.  He 
thus  moved  within  the  radius  of  her  life  and  influence  so 
completely  as  to  feel  a  strong  sense  of  dependence  upon 
her  tender  ministrations  which  clung  to  him  in  his  maturer 
years.  It  is  rare  that  a  youth  is  watched  with  more  studied 
and  solicitous  care  by  parents  than  was  he. 

How  deeply  the  father's  affection  had  centered  around 
the  life  of  his  little  son  is  revealed  by  a  letter  to  his  wife, 
dated  Nov.  16,  1861,  when  she  had  taken  her  seventeen 
months'  old  boy  on  a  visit  to  her  mother's  home  in  Phila- 
delphia.    He  writes: 

"I  am  beginning  to  forget  how  he  (little  Theodore)  looks.  It 
is  therefore  high  time  that  he  should  come  back.  I  have  been 
dreaming  about  him  these  several  nights  and  I  have  been  think- 
ing if  he  should  be  taken  from  us,  how  much  like  a  dream  would 
his  whole  existence  be  to  us  in  after  times.  Fearful  to  think 
of  it,  and  yet  possible.     The  Lord  spare  us  and  spare  him." 

There  was  law  and  order  in  the  Schmauk  household, 
but  there  was  also  love.  His  younger  sister,  Emma, 
writes : 

"My  parents  were  exceptionally  strict,  but  at  the  same  time 
most  loving  and  self-sacrificing.  Brother  and  Sister  (Theresa) 
were  never  allowed  to  be  on  the  street,  or  out  in  the  evening  later 
than  eight  o'clock,  until  Brother  went  away  to  school.  Eight 
o'clock  was  the  bed  hour.  To  me  as  the  youngest  they  were  a 
little  more  lenient  in  this  respect.  However  strict  they  were,  they 
tried  their  best  to  make  home  a  happy  place  and  took  the  greatest 
interest  in  their  children." 

The  parents  became  his  companions  to  an  exceptional  de- 
gree, and  yet  realized  that  he  must  not  be  cloistered  and 


8  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

thus  prevented  from  mingling  freely  with  boys  of  his 
own  age.  Consequently  a  place  was  fitted  up  in  the  rear 
of  the  parsonage  to  which  his  favorite  companions  were 
invited,  and  thus  amid  healthful  surroundings  and  proper 
safeguards  all  that  was  needed  to  give  vent  to  youthful 
energy  and  playfulness  was  provided.  The  playground 
soon  became  known  as  "Schmauk's  Park."  A  fountain 
and  water-works,  a  rookery  and  other  rustic  fixtures,  a 
carpenter  shop  for  the  manufacture  of  all  sorts  of  in- 
genious devices,  made  the  rear  yard  a  beehive  of  youth- 
ful industry. 

Playfulness  was  not  foreign  to  his  nature.  When  his 
parents  made  visits  to  members  in  the  country,  he  was 
sure  to  make  friends  with  the  little  folks  of  the  house- 
hold, and  invariably  he  would  organize  them  into  a  con- 
gregation and  then  preach  to  them.  Thus  early  in  his 
youth,  one  could  readily  discern  what  would  be  his 
life-calling  in  after  years. 

The  young  Theodore  was  fond  of  carpentry  and  exer- 
cised his  tastes  in  this  direction  to  the  full.  Brackets 
(some  of  them  still  to  be  seen),  wall  pockets,  sewing 
boxes,  picture  frames,  electric  battery,  and  even  a  phreno- 
logical apparatus,  were  the  creation  of  this  youthful  me- 
chanic. He  made  good  use  of  a  magic  lantern  and  also 
of  a  printery.  In  the  front  of  the  parsonage,  a  lodgment 
was  fitted  up  between  the  branches  of  a  horse-chestnut 
tree,  and  the  passersby  could  frequently  see  the  young 
boy,  with  book  in  hand,  securely  nestled  there. 

YOUNG  SCHMAUK  AT  SCHOOL 

In  a  conference  with  several  of  his  early  schoolmates, 
we  learned  that  in  school  and  on  the  streets  he  was 
known  as  a  budding  youth  quite  different  from  the  usual 


r.ovitoon    ricn-R. 


BIRTH    AND    BOYHOOD  9 

type  of  school-boy  at  his  age.  While  he  became  a  leader 
among  his  schoolmates  in  such  recreations  as  playing  sol- 
dier and  the  like,  his  fondness  for  books  and  knowledge 
manifested  itself  quite  early.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
he  stood  at  the  head  of  his  classes  and  was  a  favorite 
among  the  teachers.  "So  much  so,"  one  of  his  school- 
mates informs  us,  "that  we  boys  were  jealous  of  him." 
He  found  it  desirable  at  times  to  join  them  in  mischiev- 
ous pranks  to  win  their  good  will.  However,  when  taken 
to  task,  he  was  too  conscientious  to  take  refuge  in  lies 
or  subterfuge  and  was  prompt  in  acknowledging  the 
wrong-doing.  His  favorite  sport  was  to  play  soldier,  and 
his  resourcefulness  as  organizer  and  leader  made  it  inevi- 
table that  he  should  be  the  captain  of  the  little  com- 
pany he  had  organized.  In  fact,  he  was  always  a  leader, 
for  his  aggressiveness  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  be 
a  mere  follower.  Often  there  was  rivalry  and  things 
did  not  run  smoothly,  as  a  letter  to  one  of  his  mates 
in  which  he  pleads  for  reconciliation  shows. 

The  older  members  of  Salem  still  remember  him  as  a 
timid  child — so  timid  that  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he 
could  be  induced  to  attend  the  infant  school.  He  watched 
with  dread  the  sexton's  long  pole  with  which  to  keep 
the  children  w^ell  behaved.  This  timidity  clung  to  him 
throughout  his  early  school  life.  He  was  marked  as  a 
model  boy,  polite  and  respectful,  never  inclined  to  rough- 
ness or  boorishness.  And  yet  he  was  full  of  hfe  and 
energ}',  ever  ready  to  take  a  leading  part  in  any  amuse- 
ment that  struck  his  fancy.  He  was  industrious,  and  ex- 
ceptionally eager  to  know  things.  When  he  visited  in 
the  country  and  saw  the  people  churning  butter,  he  had 
to  know  all  about  it.  When  water  was  brought  to  Leba- 
non, he  ascertained  all  the  facts  and,  gathering  together 


12  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

He  would  often  watch  the  girls  while  playing  croquet ; 
but  it  was  with  difficulty  that  they  induced  him  to  join. 
When  on  one  occasion  the  ice  was  broken,  he  became 
quite  interested  in  the  group  and  a  few  days  thereafter 
he  displayed  a  little  gallantry  by  presenting  six  of  them 
with  colored  mica  eye-glasses  which  he  Ihimself  had 
manufactured.  However,  he  was  somewhat  embarrassed 
when  he  discovered  that  there  were  seven  girls  waiting 
to  receive  them,  instead  of  six.  When  the  seventh  girl 
snatched  one  of  the  glasses  away  from  another,  it  drew 
from  young  Schmauk  a  frown  of  disapproval  and  he 
became  profuse  in  promising  the  disappointed  girl  a  finer 
pair  of  glasses  than  the  one  she  was  deprived  of.  He 
kept  his  promise;  but  as  for  keeping  up  the  friendly  as- 
sociations, there  was  little  hope,  for  he  soon  lost  him- 
self in  study  or  other  amusements.  This  aversion  to 
social  intercourse  characterized  him  throughout  life.  He 
could  feel  comfortable  only  in  the  presence  of  both 
women  and  men  who  impressed  him  as  being  natural, 
sincere,  true,  genuine.     He  disliked  mere  conventionality. 

CONFIRMED    AT    FIFTEEN 

His  confirmation  in  1875,  when  he  was  fifteen  years  of 
age,  impressed  him  profoundly  as  marking  a  distinct  era 
in  his  life.  He  kept  in  his  possession  a  clear  outline  of 
the  sermon  preached  on  that  occasion,  and  letters  ad- 
dressed some  years  later  to  a  friend  who  had  also  been 
confirmed  in  Salem  Church  show  how  clear  was  his 
conception  of  the  significance  of  baptism  and  of  what 
it  meant  to  be  a  Christian.  His  diary  while  at  Swatara 
Institute  contains  the   following  resolutions : 

"1.  To  give  one-<tenth  of  all  my  money  to  religious 
purposes. 


Old  Church  and  Historic  Willow  Tree 


BIRTH    AND    BOYHOOD  13 

"2.  To  try  to  live  in  accordance  with  my  confirma- 
tion vows. 

"3.  To  use  my  time  at  school  rightly  and  to  behave 
properly  as  becomes  a  Christian. 

"4.     To  be  polite  to  every  one." 

Further  on  in  the  diary  he  is  conscious  that  he  had  not 
lived  up  to  these  resolutions  as  he  should  and  determined 
to  make  a  fresh  start.  This  diary  shows  that  he  kept 
track  of  the  texts  from  which  his  father  preached  and 
took  notes  of  the  sermons. 

This  youth  was  a  lover  of  nature  and  delighted  to  make 
visits  to  the  country.  To  him  God's  love  and  providence 
were  everywhere  visible  in  it,  especially  in  all  His  living 
creatures.  He  had  a  special  fondness  for  horses,  dogs 
and  birds.  When  attachments  in  particular  cases  were 
formed  they  were  peculiarly  strong.  Upon  receiv- 
ing word,  while  at  college,  that  the  favorite  pet 
dog  of  the  family  had  died,  he  is  grieved  to 
the  heart.  Like  Luther  he  would  have  made 
a  poor  hunter.  When  later  in  life  he  fell  sick  with 
typhoid  fever  and  became  convalescent,  a  dove  was  sent 
to  him  prepared  as  his  meal.  When  brought  before  him, 
he  turned  away  from  it,  declining  to  eat  it  and  saying: 
"I  see  the  dove  looking  at  me  with  its  tender  eyes."  He 
could  not  muster  courage  enough  even  to  kill  a  mouse. 

This  tenderness  and  sympathy  were  imbedded  in  his 
very  nature.  They  were  the  still  waters  that  run  deep. 
Compassion  was  as  native  to  him  as  was  his  thirst  for 
knowledge.  When  at  college  he  tramped  along  the 
Delaware  River  and  saw  a  lot  of  children  and  young  peo- 
ple whose  appearance  and  actions  revealed  that  they  be- 
longed to  the  submerged  and  abandoned  class,  his  heart 
went  out  to  them  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd,  and  writ- 


14  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

ing  home  to  his  sister,  reminded  her  how  thankful  she 
should  be  that  she  had  been  brought  up  in  a  Christian 
home.  He  was  easily  moved — even  to  tears — when  the 
inner  heart-strings  were  touched  by  the  needs  and  sor- 
rows of  others. 


CHAPTER  III 
A  Student  at  College  (1876  to  1880) 

"Wouldst   thou  pliant  for  Eternky,   then  platvf:.   into    the   deep 
infinite  foKulties  of  man,  his  Fantasy  and  Heart." — Carlyle. 

WHEN  the  father,  in  1876,  felt  that  the  demands 
on  his  strength  in  his  large  parish,  which  cov- 
ered the  greater  portion  of  Lebanon  County, 
were  such  as  to  compel  a  change,  he  accepted  a  call  to 
Allentown  and  became  the  first  pastor  of  St.  Michael's 
Church,  where  he  labored  seven  years  with  marked  suc- 
cess. This  would  have  afforded  him  an  opportunity  of 
having  his  son  near  him  while  receiving  his  college  edu- 
cation ;  for  he  had  expected  to  send  his  son  to  Muhlen- 
berg College,  of  which  Dr.  F.  A.  Muhlenberg,  in  whom 
he  had  unbounded  confidence  as  an  educator  and  friend, 
was  at  that  time  President.  When,  however.  Dr.  Muh- 
lenberg, under  the  weight  of  heavy  responsibilities  which 
he  felt  he  must  relinquish,  resigned  as  president  of  Muh- 
lenberg College  and  accepted  the  Greek  professorship 
in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  what  could  be  more 
natural  for  the  father,  when  the  presidency  of  Muhlen- 
berg College  was  still  undetermined,  than  to  send  his  son 
after  him  ?  Other  magnets  in  the  persons  of  Dr.  Krauth, 
Dr.  Mann,  and  grandfather  Schmauk  combined  to  draw 
the  younger  Schmauk  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
At  that  time,  there  were  four  Lutheran  professors  in 
the  University.  Besides  Drs.  Krauth  and  Muhlenberg, 
in  the  chemical  and  engineering  courses  there  were  Dr. 
S.  P.  Sadtler  (formerly  at  Gettysburg)  and  Dr.  Lewis 
M.  Haupt. 


16  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

It  was  therefore  promptly  decided  to  have  the  son  live 
with  his  grandfather  Schmauk  (then  a  widower)  while 
at  College  and  in  1876  he  entered  the  Freshman  Class. 
Though  he  more  than  once  complained  that  his  prepara- 
tion had  not  been  adequate,  he  took  high  standing  from 
the  start  and  soon  passed  from  sixth  or  seventh  rank  to 
second  and  finally  first.  His  home  was  with  his  grand- 
father for  only  two  years,  when  the  latter  broke  up 
housekeeping  and  went  to  Allentown  to  live  with  his 
son,  Rev.  B.  W.  Schmauk.  The  remaining  two  years 
of  his  college  life  and  later  the  three  years  of  his  semi- 
nary career,  he  spent  in  the  home  of  Mrs.  G.  W.  Haws, 
an  aunt  on  the  maternal  side. 

The  correspondence  between  father  and  son  during 
these  years  was  most  affectionate  and  confidential,  reveal- 
ing the  moulding  influence  of  the  father  upon  the  faith 
and  life  of  the  son  to  a  marked  degree.  Shortly  after 
his  arrival  at  the  University,  he  writes  a  letter  to  his  par- 
ents expressive  of  heartfelt  gratitude  for  the  sacrifices 
they  had  made  in  his  behalf  and  of  a  devout  purpose  to 
dedicate  his  life  to  Christ's  service. 

As  1876  marked  the  celebration  of  the  Centennial  of 
the  nation's  birth  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  great 
Exposition,  wrote  a  detailed  account  of  the  military 
parade  and  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration  in  Independ- 
ence Square,  and  a  description  of  the  grand  display  of 
fire-works  which  closed  the  celebration.  He  says,  "The 
rain  put  a  stop  to  the  celebrations  outside,  and  the  first 
day  of  the  second  century,  the  first  100th  anniversary 
of  our  independence,  ended  with  a  grand  display  of  fire- 
works in  the  heavens  amid  a  roar  grander  than  the  loud- 
est of  earth's  batteries — it  was  the  artillery  of  the  Al- 


STUDENT    AT    COLLEGE  17 

mighty."  The  rain  had  caused  a  postponement  of  the 
pyrotechnic  display.  This  description  reveals  the  fulsome 
style  of  rhetoric  and  the  striking  use  of  the  imagination 
which  characterized  many  of  his  sermons  and  addresses 
in  after  life. 

About  the  same  time  he  writes  a  letter  to  his  little 
sister  Emma,  giving  full  play  to  his  imagination.  It  re- 
veals his  later  well  known  gift  of  dealing  with  little  chil- 
dren. What  would  interest  a  child  more  than  a  rainbow 
and  a  flying  machine? 

"My  Dear  Emma  : — 

There  is  a  bridge  of  pearls  being  built,  high  over  a  gray  lake ; 

It  is  building  itself  up  in  a  single  minute, 

And  is  so  high  that  it  would  make  you  giddy  to  walk  on  it. 

The  highest  masts  of  the  biggest  ships 

Can  sail  under  its  arch  or  bow. 

No  one  has  ever  walked  over  this  bridge, 

And  when  you  come  near  to  it,  it  seems  to  run  away. 

It  is  seen  only  when  there  is  water  in  the  air, 

And  disappears  as  soon  as  the  water  passes  away. 

So  tell  me  where  this  bridge  is  found, 

And  who  has  made  it  so  skillfully? 

"What  do  you  think?  There  is  on  exhibition  at  the  Centennial 
grounds  a  'Flying  Machine.'  I  believe  it  has  wings  like  a  bird,  and 
a  seat  for  a  man  to  sit  in,  and  stirrups  for  him  to  put  his  feet  in. 
A  man  went  up  on  it  the  other  day,  and,  although  he  could  not  fly 
as  far  as  he  might  wish  to,  yet  he  could  go  in  any  direction  that 
he  pleased.  How  would  you  like  to  have  such  a  flying  machine? 
I  guess  the  people  in  Allentown  would  he  astonished  if  I  should 
come  flying  home  high  over  the  church-steeples  after  school  some 
afternoon.  Then  I  could  stay  at  home  over  night,  and  come  down 
here  early  the  next  morning.  We  might  put  it  in  the  Chronicle 
that  you  and  I  were  to  start  from  the  top  of  St.  Michael's  Church 
Steeple  at  six  o'clock  the  next  morning  for  Philadelphia." 

As  a  student,  he  at  once  plunged  into  his  studies  with 
a  zeal  and  enthusiasm  that  knew  no  bounds.     He  not 
C 


18  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

only  faithfully  prepared  his  lessons,  but  branched  out  far 
beyond  what  was  required  in  the  curriculum.  The  en- 
thusiasm with  which  he  entered  into  his  studies  is  indi- 
cated by  a  letter  written  to  his  father  when  he  had  started 
out  as  a  sophomore  in  1877.  He  says :  "I  feel  that  I  am 
quite  a  different  person  from  the  Theodore  of  last  Sat- 
urday, A  new  world  has  been  opened  to  me  in  the 
study  of  literature,  and  of  human  nature  through  that 
literature,  and  in  the  study  of  the  history  of  civilization." 
In  both  history  and  literature,  as  was  proved  in  later 
life,  he  felt  thoroughly  at  home. 

The  well-known  Dr.  Robert  Ellis  Thompson,  a  warm 
admirer  and  associate  of  Dr.  Krauth,  proved  to  be  one 
of  his  favorite  teachers  and  gave  him  much  inspiration 
in  his  studies.  He  spoke  in  terms  of  warmest  admira- 
tion of  Dr.  Thompson  and  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  "open 
discussions"  under  him  in  which  many  subjects  were 
touched  upon  that  gave  the  teacher  the  opportunity  of 
making  lasting  impressions  upon  his  pupils.  His  advice 
to  study  from  motives  of  love  for  knowledge  and  with 
high  ideals  and  aims  kept  constantly  in  mind,  rather  than 
for  high  marks  or  honors,  supplemented  the  teachings 
of  the  father  and  bore  fruit.  He  writes  to  his  father: 
"I  don't  study  for  marks.  I  believe  in  them  less  than 
ever  as  a  test  of  the  student's  faithfulness."  When  he 
at  one  time  failed  at  recitation,  as  he  thought,  and  was 
prompted  by  a  classmate  at  his  side,  he  refused  to  take 
advantage  of  it  and  so  wrote  his  father.  Following  is 
the  father's  reply : 

"Dear  Theodore: 

"I  am  sorry  for  you,  and  yel  rejoice  that  you  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  maintain  your  present  position  in  the  class  by  any  other  birt 
the  most  honorable  means.  I  would  a  thousand  times  rather  see 
you  at  the  tail  of  the  class  with  a  good  conscience  (and  by  that  I 


STUDENT    AT    COLLEGE  19 

mean  one  keenly  sensitive  to  the  slightest  violation  of  high-toned 
Christian  principle)  than  at  the  head  in  consequence  of  a  less 
scrupulous  regard  for  honor  and  principle. 

"Your  remaining  silent  rather  than  answering  under  prompting 
especially  pleases  me.  I  do  not,  however,  wish  to  say  more  than 
is  sufficient  simply  to  encourage  you  in  an  humble  fidelity  to  duty 
and  nobleness  of  mind.  Of  whatever  negligence  you  may  be  guiky, 
let  it  never  be  of  anything  that  is — no  matter  how  it  looks — mean." 

It  accounts  for  Dr.  Schmauk's  well-known  aversion  to 
work  for  honor's  sake.  His  unwillingness  to  be  photo- 
graphed with  a  view  to  have  himself  advertised  in  the 
press  by  means  of  his  picture  is  well-known.  It  called 
forth  his  indignation  when,  contrary  to  his  wishes,  his 
picture  appeared  in  The  Lutheran  and  other  periodicals. 
He  often  gave  the  press  notice  to  refrain  from  taking 
such  liberties.  The  root  of  this  overdone  modesty  must 
be  traced  back  to  the  influence,  first,  of  his  father  and 
next,  of  his  much-admired  teacher.  Knowledge  must  be 
sought  and  truth  loved  for  their  real  worth  and  useful- 
ness and  not  to  win  applause.  This  is  not  saying  that 
he  was  not  human  enough  to  appreciate  the  stimulus  of 
the  commendation  of  others  which  he  ever  highly  prized. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  his  thorough  conscien- 
tiousness is  an  incident  that  occurred  on  the  railroad  train 
vvhen  on  his  way  home  from  the  University  with  a  young 
cousin,  then  a  trifle  over  six  years  of  age.  The  conductor 
passed  by  without  asking  fare  for  the  little  boy ;  but  stu- 
dent Schmauk  felt  that  the  railroad  was  entitled"  to  half 
fare  and  stepping  up  to  the  conductor  informed  him  that 
the  boy  was  one  month  beyond  the  six  year  limit  and, 
of  course,  paid  the  half  fare.  More  than  one  instance  of 
a  similar  kind  could  be  related. 

Under  Dr.  Thompson  his  taste  for  literature  and  his 
desire  to  make  good  use  of  his  pen  were  greatly  stimu- 


20  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

lated.  One  day  he  remarked  to  his  favorite  classmate, 
A.  G.  Voigt,  with  whom  he  was  accustomed  to  take  long 
walks,  "I  want  to  learn  to  write."  It  was  said  with  an 
earnestness  which  left  no  doubt  in  his  friend's  mind 
that  it  was  to  be  a  fixed  and  enthusiastic  purpose  of  his. 
He  carried  out  the  purpose  by  embracing  every  oppor- 
tunity that  was  offered  at  the  University  to  practice  the 
art.  He  competed  in  nearly  all  the  prize  contests.  He 
won  the  Junior  Philosophical  Prize  with  an  essay  en- 
titled, "True  Philosophy  the  Friend  of  True  Religion;" 
the  Alumni  Junior  Declamation  Prize ;  the  Philomathean 
Society's  Senior  Prize  for  the  best  original  essay ;  and 
the  Henry  Reed  Prize  at  graduation. 

His  peculiar  method  of  treating  a  subject  crops  out  in 
a  Junior  speech  which  he  prepared  to  deliver  to  the  stu- 
dents and  which  Dr.  Thompson  rejected.  He  writes 
to  his  father :  "Dr.  Thompson  did  not  like  the  spirit 
in  which  it  was  written;  it  presented  matter  in  an  odd 
and  unusual  light;  it  was  intended  to  make  the  students 
laugh."  He  then  adds :  "He  did  not  see  the  terrible 
earnestness  under  that  laughing  and  sarcastic  tone."  "It 
was  intentionally  odd  and  unusual  so  as  to  catch  the 
attention  of  the  students,  and  it  had  a  moral  for  them." 
This  peculiarity  of  approach  to  a  subject  and  of  giving 
it  rather  startling  treatment  was  characteristic  of  him. 

His  admiration  for  Dr.  Thompson  as  teacher  was  un- 
bounded and  on  more  than  one  occasion  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  it.  Early  in  the  course,  he  writes  to  his  father : 
"If  there  is  any  one  who  can  rouse  up  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  student  to  study,  read  or  think,  I  believe  it  is 
Thompson."  Dr.  Thompson  had  no  less  high  opinion  of 
his  student  and  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  writer,  dated 
February  21,  1921,  he  says  of  him: 


STUDENT    AT    COLLEGE  21 

"When  he  entered  the  University  he  at  once  commanded  my 
attention,  not  by  his  superior  height,  but  by  his  independence  and 
freedom  of  bearing,  and  his  evident  sense  of  a  high  purpose  in 
his  work.  He  was  not  a  student  who  confined  himself  to  the 
subjects  of  the  curriculum.  He  had  many  intellectual  interests, 
and  he  took  them  all  seriously.  While  never  aggressive  in  chal- 
lenging what  was  said  fey  his  teachers,  he  also  was  never  merely 
a  pupil  to  sit  at  their  feet,  but  a  brother  in  scholarship  to  confer 
with  them  and  learn  from  them. 

"To  Dr.  Krauth  he  was  a  loving  and  beloved  son,  and  the  death 
of  that  great  scholar  and  good  man  affected  him  profoundly. 

"Our  community  of  interest  in  many  matters  brought  us.  often 
together  after  he  had  finished  his  University  course,  and  it  always 
was  a  joy  to  meet  him.  He  nearly  always  had  a  question  I  could 
not  answer,  but  which  excited  my  interest.  I  shall  never  forget 
a  delightful  night  that  I  spent  with  him  literally  'up  a  tree'  at 
Mount  Gretna  when  I  was  attending  the  Teachers'  Summer  School. 

"I  was  impressed  with  his  deepening  Lutheranism  in  his  ma- 
turer  years.  He  never  had  been  anjrthing  but  a  Lutheran,  but 
he  came  to  see  more  in  it,  and  to  live  more  completely  for  it  than 
when  he  was  younger.  But  nothing  ever  cooled  our  mutual  affec- 
tion, and  I  felt  his  early  removal  from  us  as  much  as  did  the 
members  of  his  own  communion." 

PHILOSOPHY  UNDER  DR.  KRAUTH 

The  teacher  who  loomed  largest  in  moulding  the  intel- 
lectual and  theological  thought  of  young  Schmauk  was 
Dr.  Krauth.  Under  such  distinguished  leadership,  he 
fairly  revelled  in  its  study,  and  labored  hard  to  master 
its  fundamental  ideas  and  principles,  with  Hamilton, 
Krauth's  Berkley  and  Butler's  Analogy  as  his  text  books 
— also  Kant.  He  became  so  thoroughly  absorbed  in  the 
subject  that  philosophical  concepts  filtered  through  his 
mind  into  his  letters  and  essays  and  conversation  during 
his  stay  both  at  co-Uege  and  seminary.  When  he  pre- 
pared his  philosophical  essay  in  his  Junior  year,  in  a  let- 
ter to  his  father,  he  submitted  an  outline  to  him  so  as 


22  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  make  sure  of  his  ground.  In  a  return  letter,  the 
father  discusses  at  length  the  different  points  with  con- 
siderable clearness;  but  being  manifestly  dissatisfied  with 
the  attempt,  he  winds  up  by  saying  he  had  said  enough 
"to  make  the  subject  clear  as  mud." 

At  the  class-day  graduation  exercises,  his  fondness  for 
philosophy  w^as  caricatured  by  his  classmates  who  pre- 
sented him  with  a  volume  about  two  feet  long  and  a 
foot  thick  entitled  "Kant."  When  it  was  placed  before 
him,  he  insisted  on  replying  and  started  out  with  the 
sentence :  "Kant  a  great  philosopher ;  Schmauk  a  little 
philosopher."  Then  followed  an  embarrassing  pause ; 
but  he  stuck  to  his  task,  struggled  through  and  came 
off  with  credit.  His  commencement  speech  (he  was 
the  valedictorian)  showed  traces  of  his  philosophical 
training  and  was  based  on  no  less  intricate  subjects  than 
the  Hindu,  Persian,  and  Sufi  philosophies,  in  which 
he  attempted  to  "bring  out  contrasts  between  them  and 
western  philosophy  in  a  popular  way,"  as  he  writes  (won- 
derful to  relate). 

At  one  time,  he  must  have  given  expression,  in  a  let- 
ter to  his  father,  to  some  ideas  that  did  not  ring  true, 
and,  no  doubt,  the  father  expressed  fears  that  plunging 
too  deeply  into  the  philosophical  waters  might  submerge 
or  drown  his  faith.  However  that  may  be,  the  son 
says  in  a  letter:  "What  I  wrote  last  week  shows  not 
the  slightest  religious  change.  I  hope  I  can  say  that 
my  faith  is  firm  and  unshaken.  I  derive  much  comfort 
in  believing  that  Christ  is  the  Truth.  I  believe  as  I  did 
when  I  was  confirmed." 

Books  that  influenced  him  greatly  during  his  college 
course  were  Todd's  "Students  Manual"  and  Hamerton's 
"Intellectual  Life."     He  also  became  interested  in  medi- 


STUDENT  AT  COLLEGE  23 

cine*  and  lawf  and  acquired  a  fair  knowledge  of  the 
rudiments  of  both.  He  loved  history.  But  at  the  clos- 
ing period  of  his  college  life,  he  was  specially  interested 
in  the  great  thought  and  life  problems  and  loved  to  dis- 
cuss them  with  his  intimate  friends,  while  taking  long 
walks.  Both  A.  G.  Voigt  and  G.  C.  F.  Haas  were  mem- 
bers of  Zion  Church  and  were  in  frequent  touch  with 
him,  especially  the  former.  Haas,  who  was  at  the  Semi- 
nary while  Schmauk  was  at  college,  says :  "The  favorite 
and  most  frequently  treated  subject  was  philosophy  and 
its  various  problems.  These  conversations  very  clearly 
showed  the  thoughtful  and  research-loving  quality  of  his 
mind.  He  always  sought  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  things, 
and  yet  he  was  not  a  dry  reasoner  and  would  very 
readily  drift  into  all  sorts  of  profound  speculations." 

This  same  penchant  for  philosophical  discussion  crops 
out  in  his  correspondence  with  Voigt,  when  the  latter 
studied  in  Erlangen  in  1882,  before  his  graduation  at 
the  Philadelphia  Seminary.  Both  were  classmates  not 
only  at  college  but  also  at  the  Seminary,  and  delighted 
in  attacking  profound  subjects.  The  correspondence 
shows  that  Voigt  often  sought  to  season  the  seriousness 
of  Schmauk's  thinking  with  sallies  of  wit,  revealing 
marked  differences  of  taste  and  temperament,  and  often 
of  viewpyoint. 

And  yet  the  apprehension  of  truth  through  faith  rather 
than  by  abstract  reasoning  was  too  strong  in  him  to 
allow  him  to  lose  himself  in  the  mazes  of  philosophical 


*  A  physician  while  seated  by  his  side  on  a  train  bound  for  Philadelphia 
several  years  ago,  said  that  he  put  questions  on  the  subject  of  medicine 
at  him  which  nine-tenths  of  the  profession  could  not  have  asked  and  much 
less  answered. 

t  At  a  court  trial  in  Harrisburg  in  1919  he  was  placed  on  the  witness 
stand  to  give  testimony  in  a  case  affecting  a  congregation,  and  made  so 
clear  and  lawyerlike  a  presentation  that  the  Judge  remarked  he  had  never 
listened  to  an  abler  witness. 


24  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

systems  of  thought.  He  strove  at  all  times  to  make 
his  philosophy  bend  to  his  theology  and  he  succeeded. 
In  his  Junior  year  when  he  first  delved  into  the  subject, 
he  writes  to  his  father:  "I  am  getting  to  be  interested 
in  philosophy.  But  now  I  feel  as  if  I  would  like  to  for- 
get, or  never  to  have  known,  the  mass  of  philosophical 
reasoning  and  argumentation.  I  have  a  yearning  for  a 
simple,  pure  life  of  faith — no  deep  questions  of  philoso- 
phy. I  cannot  see  that  philosophy  is  the  friend  of  true 
religion  that  Dr.  Krauth  would  probably  say  it  was." 
His  religion  and  not  his  philosophy  became  his  real  terra 
firma. 

While  at  college,  as  well  as  later  in  the  Seminary,  this 
tall,  lank  and  youthful  student  was  specially  favored  by 
being  thrown  in  contact  with  two  such  luminaries  as  Drs. 
Mann  and  Krotel,  the  latter  being  a  frequent  visitor  at 
the  Schmauk  homestead.  In  addition  to  the  impress 
which  Drs.  Krauth  and  Muhlenberg  left  upon  him,  that 
of  Drs.  Mann  and  Krotel  upon  his  life  and  character 
was  potent.  Dr.  Mann  was  his  father's  theological 
teacher;  and  for  seven  years  he  was  the  pastor  and  for 
three  years  the  Seminary  professor  of  the  younger 
Schmauk.  He  watched  the  young  student  and  saw  in 
him  the  promise  of  a  brilliant  career.  He  saw  to  it  that 
his  philosophy  did  not  run  away  with  him  and  that  he 
did  not  run  away  from  a  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
German  language. 

He  was  no  less  under  the  spell  of  Dr.  Krotel's  influ- 
ence, who  watched  the  career  of  the  young  student  with 
keenest  interest.  How  strong  the  attachment  between 
the  two  proved  to  be  was  later  revealed  by  a  voluminous 
correspondence  when,  chiefly  through  the  younger 
Schmauk's  influence  and  initiative,  Dr.  Krotel  was  in- 


STUDENT    AT    COLLEGE  25 

duced  to  become  Editor-in-chief  of  The  Lutheran  in 
1896.  This  correspondence  continued  up  to  the  time  of 
Dr.  Krotel's  death  in  1907.  The  younger  Schmauk  fell 
heir  to  the  warm  and  lifelong  friendship  that  sprang  up 
between  his  father  and  the  golden-tongued  preacher  of 
New  York  City,  at  the  time  when  both  attended  the  paro- 
chial school  in  Zion  Church  under  the  tutelage  of  Gott- 
fried Schmauk. 


CHAPTER   IV 
Student  at  Seminary  (1880  to  1883) 

"Master,  I  am  here! 
Go   on,  and  I  w^ll  follow  Thee, 
To  the  last  gasp,  wiih  truth  and  loyalty 
Help  me  be  triie. 
And  not  give   dalliance 
Too  much  the  rein; 
The  strongest  oaths  are  straw 
To   the  fire  in  the  blood. 
Wake  in  my  breast  the  living  fires, 
The  holy  faith  that  warmed  my  sires." 

— Schmauk. 

IN  1880,  this  young  student,  then  twenty  years  of  age, 
entered  the  Philadelphia  Seminary.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  any  other  alumnus  of  that  institution  ever 
took  up  his  course  of  study  with  greater  zeal  and  more 
glowing  enthusiasm  than  did  he.  He  plunged  into  the 
routine  of  seminary  life  as  one  thoroughly  in  his  ele- 
ment, determined  to  recast  that  routine,  if  possible — to 
enlarge  it  and  put  new  life  into  it.  The  first  thing  he 
wished  to  know  was  what  sort  of  library  apparatus  would 
be  at  his  disposal.  He  at  once  made  the  discovery  that 
it  was  practically  inaccessible  and  useless  in  its  cramped 
quarters,  and  needed  thorough  reorganization.  He  conse- 
quently denied  himself  a  much-needed  vacation,  and  be- 
fore seminary  opened,  he  was  busy  with  the  task  of  recon- 
stituting it  and  bringing  order  out  of  chaos.  More  than 
once,  in  his  diary,  occur  the  words,  "Extremely  busy  at 
library."  Two  desks  speedily  appeared,  much  painting 
was  done,  a  new   register  book   secured    (a  gift   from 


STUDENT    AT    SEMINARY  27 

Leary's  where  he  was  a  frequent  visitor),  Hbrary  lamps 
bought,  rules  and  regulations  framed,  and  within  a  month's 
time  the  whole  aspect  of  things  was  changed  and  the 
students  had  at  their  disposal  a  workable  library,  though 
it  still  demanded  more  attention  than  the  young  organizer 
could  give  it.  Even  with  two  assistants  that  were  later 
granted  him  by  the  faculty,  he  found  enough  to  do  to 
keep  him  busy;  for  his  motto  all  through  life  was  never 
to  do  things  by  halves.  This  work  brought  him  into  con- 
stant touch  with  his  revered  teacher,  Dr.  Krauth,  and 
proved  to  be  fully  as  educational,  if  not  much  more  so, 
than  the  prescribed  courses  of  study.  He  had  hardly 
been  in  the  Seminary  more  than  a  few  weeks,  when  the 
question  of  how  to  deal  with  the  scientific  doubter  was 
discussed  before  the  student  body.  He  naturally  took 
a  deep  interest  in  the  subject  and  presented  a  method 
and  a  line  of  argument.  This  was  attacked  by  several 
seniors  as  meeting  the  doubter  too  much  on  his  own 
ground.  He  felt  the  sting  of  their  criticisms  and  in  a 
letter  submitted  an  outline  of  his  argument  to  his  father, 
complaining  of  the  lack  of  the  spirit  of  inquiry  among 
the  seniors.  To  this  the  father,  in  a  letter  dated  October 
18,  1880,  replies  while  he  gives  him  wholesome  advice. 
Part  of  it  reads  as  follows : 

"From  what  you  state  as  your  line  of  argument,  I  do  not  see  on 
what  grounds  any  of  the  Seniors  could  rise  to  oppose  you.  It 
must  be  said,  however,  that  even  in  the  honest  scientific  doubter 
there  is,  if  not  a  puffed-up,  yet  a  lurking  false  pride — the  same  that 
is  inherent  in  every  natural  or  sceptical  heart,  and  which  prompts 
him  to  give  undue  heed  to  the  reasonings  of  his  head,  instead  of 
yielding  unreservedly  to  the  promptings  of  God's  Spirit  in  his  heart. 
But  this  pride  of  an  honest  (or  apparently  honest)  but  unawakened 
or  unrenewed  heart  should  be  mei  by  sanctified  reasoning — reason- 
ing   in    the    spirit    of    the    love    and    word   of    God    on   scien- 


28  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

tific  grounds,  as  far  as  such  grounds  present  themselves,  or  are 
involved  in  the  presentation  of  purely  religious  reasons. 

"Unless  you  keep  a  constant  clear-sighted  check  upon  your  im- 
pulsiveness, in  a  spirit  of  true  humility  and  prayer,  and  are  very 
careful  of  your  tone  and  manner  of  speech,  ever  remembering  the 
order  of  gradation  and  subordination  of  classes  and  what  is  due 
to  the  mere  outward  rank  of  seniority,  you  are  in  danger  of  ren- 
dering yourself  obnoxious  to  fellow-students  of  all  the  three  classes 
and  of  giving  yourself  in  itheir  eyes  the  appearance  (though  you 
may  not  be  such  in  reality)  of  one  eager  to  display  a  capacious 
mind  and  education,  and  also  of  one  disposed  to  be  a  fault-finding 
agitator.  You  are  conscious,  I  know,  of  the  purest  and  best  of 
motives,  but  do  not  forget  that  others,  most  of  whom  have  had  no 
full  opportunity  of  knowing  you  thoroughly,  are  not  so  ready  to 
give  you  credit  for  them. 

"As  long  as  you  keep  within  these  bounds  of  discretion  and 
Christian  modesty,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  make  yourself,  as  far 
as  occasion  calls  for  it,  prominent  in  awakening  a  spirit  of  inquiry 
and  earnest  zeal  in  others." 

In  the  summer  of  1881,  after  an  excursion  of  two 
vi^eeks  by  foot  to  the  Water  Gap  by  vi^ay  of  Bath,  Pen 
Argyl  and  Bangor,  in  company  v^ith  his  classmate,  Voigt, 
and  another  (with  G.  C.  Gardner)  by  boat  to  Catasauqua, 
he  returned  to  the  City  the  latter  part  of  August,  when 
it  was  oppressively  hot,  to  take  up  work  in  the  Library 
and  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  students'  seminary  journal. 
"Hard  at  work  in  the  Library,"  occurs  more  than  once 
in  his  diary.  He  had  to  do  much  in  running  errands  and 
providing  financially  for  his  proposed  venture.  His  father 
felt  very  uneasy,  knowing  full  well  how  his  enthusiasm 
for  work  might  react  against  his  health;  and  not  with- 
out reason,  for  more  than  once  was  he  threatened  with 
a  break-down.     His  note  of  warning  reads  as  follows : 

"It  is  a  pity  you  must  be  in  Philadelphia  during  these  hot,  dry 
days;   and  I   feel  uneasy  in  thinking  of  the   eflfect  it  may  have 


STUDENT    AT    SEMINARY  29 

upon  your  health,  especially  if  you  are  obliged  'to  run  about  the 
city  in  the  broiling  sun  and  have  much  care  on  your  mind  in 
regard  to  the  Library  and  your  new  enterprise.  It  will  not  do  for 
you  to  exhaust  and  work  up  your  nervous  system,  keeping  it  in  a 
constant  flurry  already  at  the  beginning  of  the  Seminary  term. 
If  you  should  break  down  now.  what  will  be  your  condition  for 
the  next  six  months  at  least?  Therefore  do  not  risk  the  chance 
of  overworking  and  overexciting  yourself  already  at  the  start. 
Rather  than  that,  let  business,  however  pressing,  wait  and  suffer. 
In  order  to  toe  true  to  what  the  future  will  demand  of  you,  and 
what  God  now  asks  of  you,  your  first  duty  is  to  save  and  husband 
your  strength.  This  you  realize,  but  you  must  battle  with  yourself 
to  keep  your  ardor  for  work  in  this  necessary  restraint ;  and  I 
would  help  in  this  direction." 

After  consulting  with  Drs.  Krauth  and  Mann  and 
Weidner,  submitting  his  ideas  and  plans  to  them,  and 
finally  his  editorials  and  other  material ;  and  after  col- 
lecting the  needed  funds  and  making  the  necessary  con- 
tracts, having  interested  the  student  body  and  prominent 
leaders  in  the  Church,  there  appeared  in  neat  magazine 
form,  in  October,  1881,  the  first  issue  of  The  Indicator, 
bearing  the  motto :  "Keep  that  which  is  committed  to 
thy  trust."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  journalistic 
innovation  created  considerable  interest  and  met  with 
general  favor.  The  father,  in  a  letter,  expressed  his 
pleasure,  but  seasoned  it  with  a  characteristic  admonition 
to  keep  humble,  as  he  wrote :  "I  am  pleased  with  and 
proud  of  The  Indicator  and  its  Chief  Editor,  whose 
work  it  almost  exclusively  seems  to  be.  I  trust  and  pray 
he  may  have  grace  to  bear  without  moral  injury  the  praise 
he  is  likely  to  reap  from  many  quarters." 

The  father  was  ever  diligent  in  impressing  upon  the 
son  the  grace  of  humility,  and  did  not  like  to  see  him 
unduly  praised.  When  later  the  son  preached  a  sermon 
with  great  acceptability,  a  friend  wrote  the  father  speak- 


30  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

ing  in  highest  terms  of  the  son's  ability  as  a  preacher 
and  indulged  in  much  laudation.  In  his  reply  the  father 
wrote,  "He  needs  your  prayers,  not  your  praises." 

Commendations  came  in  from  all  sides  and  the  Church 
papers,  with  one  exception,  gave  it  most  favorable  men- 
tion. 

The  Lutheran  of  December  1,  1881,  (Dr.  Krotel,  editor)  wrote 
thus: 

"We  might  notice  the  Indicator  among  our  Lutheran  Ex- 
changes, but  prefer  to  give  it  a  special  place  because  it  comes 
from  our  Seminary  Library,  is  so  young,  and  has  grown  so 
rapidly.  Before  our  advent  to  this  chair,  we  saw  the  first  two 
numbers,  each  containing  four  pages,  and  itoday  we  have  received 
the  third,  which  has  eight  pages.  It  is  a  monthly,  devoted  to  the 
interests  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church,  at  Philadelphia.  Subscription  price,  25  cents  per  year, 
strictly  in  advance.  Address  Indicator,  212  and  214  Franklin 
street,  Philadelphia. 

"It  is  a  sprightly  little  sheet,  admirably  adapted  to  its  purpose. 
The  number  before  us  contains  short,  but  valuable  communications 
from  Drs.  Spaeth  and  C.  W.  SchaefTer,  and  Prof.  M.  H.  Rich- 
ards. The  rest  is  the  work  of  the  young  Librarian  and  editor, 
whom  we  knew  before  he  knew  himself.  Dr.  Spaeth's  article  on 
Johann  Albrecht  Bengel,  tells  us  that  Gnomon  means  Indicator. 
This  being  the  case  we  wish  all  success  to  the  young  Bengel  to 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  the  Seminary  Gnomon." 

Our  Church  Paper  from  the  South  gave  it  a  hearty 
send-ofif  and  advised  its  readers  to  subscribe  for  it.  The 
one  exception  was  Zeuge  der  Wahrhcit,  in  which  Dr. 
Sihler  of  the  Missouri  Synod  disapproves  of  the  enter- 
prise and  thinks  that  students  could  devote  their  time  to 
study  much  better  than  to  waste  it  on  The  Indicator. 

But  the  work  of  the  double  task  of  acting  as  editor 
and  librarian  weighed  heavily  upon  him  and  he  notes 
in  his  diary:    "Indicator,   library,   library  reports,   and 


STUDENT    AT    SEMINARY  31 

finally  my  lessons  and  my  reading!  Too  much  is  upon 
me !"  He  soon  concluded  that  the  student-body,  which 
had  allowed  the  adventurer  to  shoulder  the  whole  financial 
burden  while  they  stood  by  and  applauded,  must  now 
assume  responsibility  and  not  alJow  it  to  be  continued 
as  a  purely  personal  enterprise.  Hence  we  read  these 
words  in  his  diary,  early  in  1882:  "During  the  winter 
term  I  felt  that  now  or  never  was  The  Indicator  to  be 
turned  over  to  the  students  and  made  a  Seminary  affair." 
Accordingly  at  a  meeting  shortly  before  Easter  of  that 
year,  he  presented  the  proposition  in  so  thorough,  able 
and  convincing  a  manner  as  to  win  unanimous  approval 
and  by  Easter  it  was  published  under  the  auspices  of  the 
student  body. 

HIS  TWENTY-FIRST  BIRTHDAY 
A  sidelight,  which  reveals  how  strong  were  the  ties 
between  the  father  and  the  son,  and  by  what  magic  the 
former  exerted  and  maintained  his  influence  over  him,  is 
a  letter  of  the  elder  Schmauk  on  the  occasion  of  his  son's 
twenty-first  birthday.  It  was  in  response  to  an  "effu- 
sion" of  the  son  which  unfortunately  is  not  within  reach. 
In  it  he  doubtless  poured  out  of  the  fulness  of  his  heart 
noble  thoughts  and  aspirations.  The  father's  letter,  how- 
ever, has  been  preserved  and  is  worthy  of  a  place  in 
this  biography.     It  reads: 

Allentown,  May  30,  1881. 
"My  Dear  Boy : 

"The  true  relation  of  a  son  to  hh  parents  is  not  to  be  marked 
by  his  age,  or  maturity  in  years.  Nor  are  the  feelings  with  which 
I  respond  to  your  affectionate  and  noble  birthday  effusion  capable 
of  being  fully,  or  even  properly,  expressed  by  me  in  words.  I 
will  not  even  attempt  to  put  into  set  and  select  language  what 
you  already  know  to  be  the  langviage  of  our  hearts  and  of  our 
lives   in  our  parental    feeling  towards   you.     I   will  give  you  no 


32  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

fatherly  advice  and  admonition  on  this  the  day  of  your  entrance 
into  the  years  of  manhood.  You  do  not  especially  need  it.  I 
will  not  speak  of  our  past  cares  and  hopes  and  joys  as  centered 
in  you  our  first-born,  and  only  son.  I  will  simply  say,  you  have 
been  to  us  a  'Theodore,'  a  gift  of  God  indeed,  more  precious  than 
all  earthly  gifts;  weighting  our  consciences  with  solemn  respon- 
sibilities, but  also  rejoicing  them  with  rich  blessing.  Nor  will  I 
speak  of  your  promise  and  our  fond  expectations  for  the  future; 
hut  will  simply  and  fervently  pray :  'God  bless  you,  my  son !' 
and  speed  and  sustain  you  in  the  line  of  principle,  duty,  and 
calling  you  have  so  freely  chosen,  and  He  the  Lord  has  so  graci- 
ously marked  out  for  you !  I  have  often  wished  I  could  live  my 
youthful  years  over  again,  and  also  much  of  my  ministerial  life — 
how  much  more  faithfully  would  I  improve  my  opportunities  1" 

AN   INSPIRATIONAL   BOOK 

Early  on  Sunday  morning,  after  the  closing  of  the 
Seminary  in  1881,  he  writes  a  characteristic  letter  w^hich 
shows  with  what  enthusiasm  he  could  enter  into  the  life 
of  a  book.  It  is  hard  to  guess  what  particular  book  he 
was  reading,  but  the  following  effusion  shows  what  a 
deep  impression  its  contents  made  upon  him : 

"My  Dear  Father : 

"Thursday  afternoon,  when  the  recitations  at  the  Seminary  were 
over  and  the  students  were  about  leaving  for  home,  I  felt  inclined 
to  follow  their  example.  The  day  was  so  spring-like,  so  pleasant 
and  warm,  that  my  imagination  was  ever  building  up  pictures  of 
awaking  Nature  in  the  quiet  country  and  my  thoughts  refused  to 
be  confined  within  a  narrow,  little,  one-windowed  room  in  a  dusity, 
ugly  city. 

"But  on  that  very  day,  and  on  every  succeeding  day,  I  was  richly 
repaid  for  resisting  the  temptation.  For  within  a  space,  four 
inches  by  twelve,  in  traveling  between  the  two  covers  of  a  book,  I 
had  gone  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  I  had  traversed  the 
air,  and  risen  to  the  heavens.  I  have  acquired  and  have  in  my 
possession  fields  perennially  blooming  and  lands  that  can  never  be 
mortgaged  or  sold.    A  part  of  the  thoughts,  words,  deeds  and  events 


STUDENT    AT    SEMINARY  33 

of  the  past,  a  faint  presentment  of  my  work  in  the  future,  and 
above  all  a  clear  insight  into  the  fact  that  history  is  ruled  by 
Providence,  a  feeling  of  my  dependence  and  a  trusting  in  that 
Providence,  a  complete — as  it  seems  to  me — removal  of  the  chief 
difficulty  in  my  attempts  to  harmonize  my  philosophy  and  my 
religion,  and  following  on  all  this  a  descent  of  theology  from  my 
head  to  my  heart,  an  advance  beyond  the  portals  into  the  deep 
realities  of  Christian  faith  and  life,  have — if  I  have  not  been 
deceived — been  granted  to  me." 

His  thirst  for  knowledge  and  his  ability  to  cover  an 
immense  field  of  literature  in  a  short  space  of  time  with- 
out merely  skimming  over  the  surface  were  exceptional. 
During  the  summer  of  1881,  when  the  two  previously 
mentioned  excursions  occupied  his  time  from  July  11th 
to  the  latter  part  of  August,  and  when  thereafter  the 
Library  and  his  new  project  absorbed  all  his  energies,  he 
yet  was  able  to  say  in  his  diary  that  he  had  covered  the 
following  ground:  Botany  and  Compte  (Britannica), 
Life  of  Frederick  the  Great  (Macaulay),  Life  of  Milton 
(Patterson),  Hypatia  (Kingsley),  History  of  Architec- 
ture (Ferguson),  Islam  (Kramer),  Miracle  in  Stone 
(Seiss),  Schul-Lieder-Schatz,  and  Luther  and  Dante. 

No  field  of  knowledge  seemed  foreign  to  him.  He  at 
one  time  visited  a  watch  factory,  and  came  back  to  the 
Seminary  with  a  remarkably  clear  and  detailed  account 
of  the  whole  process  of  making  watches. 

During  the  Easter  vacation  of  1882,  he  substituted  for 
a  teacher  in  the  high-school  at  Allentown,  who  had  taken 
sick,  and  did  so  with  great  acceptability  from  April  11th 
to  April  28th.  During  the  summer  vacation  he  supplied 
Trinity  Church  at  Catasauqua  and  awakened  hopes 
among  the  members  that  upon  his  ordination  he  might 
become  their  pastor.  In  the  fall,  he  entered  the  Semi- 
nary, as  he  sa>"s,  "determined  to  absorb  myself  in  theo- 
D 


34  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

logical  study  and  let  outside  matters  alone."  He  had 
hardly  made  a  fair  beginning  in  carrying  out  this  pur- 
pose when  on  October  28th  he  took  sick  with  a  severe 
attack  of  typhoid  malaria.  For  many  days  his  "mind  was 
almost  a  vacuum,"  he  says.  His  mother,  who  nursed  him 
through  many  an  illness  before,  was  summoned  to  Phila- 
delphia and  under  her  watchful  care  he  recovered  suf- 
ficiently to  be  able  to  return  to  his  home  at  Allentown, 
several  weeks  before  Christmas,  to  recuperate.  He  re- 
signed as  editor  of  The  Indicator  and  as  senior  librar- 
ian. The  former  resignation  was  accepted,  but  the  lat- 
ter not. 

DR.  KRAUTH'S  DEATH 

Hardly  had  he  been  settled  in  his  home  environment 
when,  on  January  2,  1883,  news  of  the  death  of  his  re- 
vered teacher  and  model  theologian.  Dr.  Krauth,  reached 
him.  All  he  can  say  in  his  Diary  is,  "During  my  stay 
at  Allentown,  Dr.  Krauth,  my  dear  professor,  died." 
Though  not  unexpected,  it  proved  to  be  a  severe  shock 
to  him,  and  though  not  fully  recovered,  he  must  attend 
his  funeral.  Unfortunately,  the  weather  proved  to  be 
most  unfavorable  and  to  pay  his  last  respects  to  his 
great  teacher  was  denied  him.  He,  however,  paid  his 
tribute  to  him  in  the  next  issue  of  The  Indicator  and 
under  much  difficulty  wrote  his  "In  Memoriam." 

We  shall  here  allow  Dr.  Jacobs  to  repeat  the  words  he 
spoke  at  the  Schmauk  memorial  service  at  the  Seminary 
and  as  printed  in  the  Lutheran  Church  Revieiv  which 
appeared  in  the  summer  of  1920: 

"It  is  interesting  to  read  his  tribute  to  Dr.  Krauth  as  'an  ideal 
teacher  for  an  ideal  student.'  He  did  not  mean  it  so,  but  we  all 
know  who  that  'ideal  student'  was.  'Hundreds  of  times,'  he  writes, 
'that,   in   response   to   his   teacher's   challenge,    he  had   raised   ob- 


STUDENT    AT    SEMINARY  35 

jections  and  provoked  debates  in  the  classroom,  only  in  every 
case,  to  find  every  difficulty  removed!  Was  it  a  wonder  that  this 
'ideal  teacher'  ibecame  his  ideal  as  a  teacher  when  he  found  like 
'ideal  pupils'  sitting  at  his  feet?  Those  who  knew  the  eminent 
teacher  can  read  that  teacher's  mind  back  of  the  utterance  of  the 
pupil  in  his  student  days :  'We  believe  in  circumferences,  but  we 
must  first  find  and  possess  ourselves  of  a  center;  then  only,'  i.  e., 
after  the  center  is  once  found,  'may  we  say  that  there  can  be  no 
true  center  without  a  circumference.'  We  can  almost  see  the 
dignified  form  of  tlie  beloved  teacher  turning  with  tottering  steps 
to  the  library-room  on  Franklin  Street,  after  the  exhausting  duties 
of  the  day's  work  at  University  and  Seminary  were  over,  seeking 
the  association  of  the  youthful  librarian,  and  then,  again,  the 
youthful  librarian  hastening  to  West  Philadelphia  with  his  many 
wonderful  day-dreams  for  the  library  and  the  Seminary,  to  be 
revised  and  censored  by  an  older  head.  The  Indicator,  which 
he  started  to  further  these  interests,  bore  as  its  motto  on  the 
cover :  'Keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy  trust'  It  pleaded 
for  a  'Professorship  of  Sacred  Oratory :'  and  that  professorship 
came.  It  urged  a  thorough  re-arrangement  and  re-classification 
of  the  library ;  and  he  was  promptly  commissioned  to  undertake  it. 
Then  the  cry  was  raised  for  the  removal  of  the  Seminary  to  the 
suburbs,  where  a  group  of  buildings  on  ample  grounds  might  be- 
come the  center  of  the  ever-growing  life  of  the  Church.  Not 
many  years  passed  before  he  was  destined  to  see  all  these  visions 
of  his  Seminary  Days  realized." 

Early  in  the  new  year  of  1883,  he  returned  to  the 
Seminary  and  took  up  his  work  with  renewed  enthu- 
siasm. He  was  soon  able  to  supply  pulpits  and  thus 
awaken  hopes  in  not  a  few  churches  that  they  might 
win  as  their  prize  this  promising  youthful  preacher.  He, 
however,  became  absorbed  in  his  studies  and  gave  little 
thought  about  his  future.  The  two  sad  experiences  of 
his  last  year  at  the  Seminary  made  him  deeply  serious. 
Dr.  Mann,  who  sought  to  impress  upon  the  hearts  of 
every  out-going  class  their  need  of  a  completer  surren- 


36  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

der  to  their  Lord  and  of  a  fuller  realization  of  the  mean- 
ing of  their  future  calling  (and  at  times  with  tears), 
was  at  his  best  in  one  of  his  recitations,  and  we  read  in 
Schmauk's  Diary  these  words :  "At  an  hour  in  Ethics, 
Dr.  Mann  made,  I  hope,  a  lasting  impression  on  us  stu- 
dents— telling  us  we  must  have  a  spiritual  life  of  our  own, 
must  not  mix  too  much  with  the  world  but  look  at  every- 
thing from  the  Christian  point  of  view.  He  was  very 
earnest."  He  was  not  alone  in  feeling  the  force  of  Dr. 
Mann's  influence  in  quickening  the  spiritual  life  of  his 
students  and  deepening  their  consecration. 


Interior   ov    ( )i,n    Sai.km    Church 


CHAPTER  V 


His  Early  Pastorate  As  Associate 
OF  His  Father  (1883-1898) 

The  fttinister  of  Christ  will  manifest  Christ  in  the  strength 
of  indiindjtality.  He  will  not  follow  the  stream  whichever  way 
it  leads.  From  the  cut  of  his  coat  to  the  formation  of  his  opinion, 
from  the  most  tt'ifling  act  to  the  weightiest  decision,  he  will  not 
do  only  as  others  do.  He  will  not  dread  being  in  a  tninority. 
He  will  not  become  a  mere  reflection,  an  echo,  a  shadow  of  those 
with  whom  he  mingles.  He  ztnll  not  imitate  either  preacher  or 
thinker.  Rooted  firmly  in  the  Word,  he  will  develop  and  pro- 
ceed in  his  oziti  way,  as  God  intended  he  should. — Schmauk. 

THIS  promising  luminary  became  widely  known 
before  his  graduation  as  a  valiant  son  of  the 
Church  who  had  already  won  his  spurs,  and 
seven  doors  for  future  service  were  thrown  open  to  him 
which  he  was  strongly  urged  to  enter.  He  had  the  choice 
of  entering  the  educational  sphere  at  Augustana  College, 
Rock  Island,  111.,  as  professor  of  English  and  Philosophy, 
or  taking  up  journalistic  work  as  editor  of  The  Lutheran 
in  case  Dr.  Reuben  Hill 
should  succeed  in  becoming 
its  owner,  or  of  accepting 
one  of  five  calls  to  congre- 
gations. Already  during  his 
convalescence  from  illness 
in  December,  1882,  he  was 
approached  from  several 
sides  to  commit  himself  as 
to  his  future  field  of  labor, 
at  Allentown  the  questions 
were — prematurely    and    un- 


and    he    writes : 
in    regard    to    my 


"While 
future 


38  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

fortunately  as  father  and  I  thought — sprung  upon 
me.  Rev.  Hill  said  he  would  try  to  buy  out 
The  Lutheran  and  give  me  half  its  profits,  if  I  would 
run  it  as  editor.  Conclusion:  I  was  too  young, 
father  had  educated  me  to  preach  and  I  had  no 
pastoral  experience;  this  would  have  made  a  business 
man  of  me."  "Professor  Weidner,  in  from  Augustana 
College  on  a  Christmas  trip,  said  I  must  by  no  means 
bind  myself  down  in  the  east  until  I  had  received  a  call 
to  Augustana  as  professor  of  English  literature  and  of 
Christianity.  (The  title  was  changed  later  as  above). 
Esbjorn  (his  classmate),  Weidner  and  I  would  be  to- 
gether. The  field  is  glorious  and  unlimited  in  extent. 
Conclusion : — probably  negative,  because  my  constitu- 
tion could  not  stand  the  work,  the  mode  of  life,  and 
because  of  the  opposition  of  my  dear  mother."  The 
mother  well  knew  that  owing  to  his  delicate  health,  he 
would  be  helpless  away  from  home  in  case  of  sickness. 
Colonel  Horn,  father  of  the  late  Dr.  E.  T.  Horn,  with 
the  aid  of  the  Rev.  J.  D.  Schindel,  importuned  him  to 
have  an  open  mind  for  Trinity  Church,  Catasauqua, 
Pa.,  and  St.  John's  Church,  Coplay,  to  be  formed  into 
one  parish. 

As  soon  as  he  returned  to  the  Seminary  in  January, 
1883,  as  he  notes  in  his  diary,  "Sandt  tried  to  impress 
me  with  the  duty  of  going  to  Camden  (Epiphany.)" 
With  St.  Stephen's  in  mind.  Dr.  Mann  advised :  "Don't 
fasten  yourself  anywhere.  I  have  plans  for  you  in  West 
Philadelphia."  Later  in  the  year,  he  was  approached  by 
Dr.  S.  P.  Sadtler,  then  a  member  of  St.  Stephen's,  and 
urged  to  accept  the  call  to  that  congregation,  at  one  time 
served  by  Dr.  Krauth. 

When  spring  came,  two  more  calls  were  at  hand  to 


EARLY   PASTORATE  39 

be  considered, — one  from  St.  Paul's,  Brooklyn,  and  an- 
other from  Salem  Church,  Lebanon,  the  latter  to  both 
father  and  son.  On  April  6th,  he  notes  in  his  diary : 
"I  went  home  to  decide  with  father.  After  great  anxiety, 
Providence  seemed  to  indicate  Lebanon.  I  so  informed 
all  parties." 

Thus  the  die  was  cast  for  Lebanon,  and  on  the  morn- 
ing of  July  1,  1883,  the  father  preached  his  introductory 
sermon;  and  in  the  evening,  the  son  discoursed  on  the 
text  which  he  had  adopted  as  the  motto  of  The  Indicator : 
"O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy  trust" 
— a  text  that  was  later  to  find  rich  fulfilment  in  his  own 
case  as  preacher,  teacher,  editor,  administrator  and  author 
in  the  defense  of  the  faith. 

It  was  almost  inevitable  that  father  and  son  should 
decide  in  favor  of  Salem  Church,  Lebanon.  It  was  home 
to  both  as  no  other  place  could  be.  Twelve  years  of  the 
younger  Schmauk's  boyhood  were  spent  there.  Strong 
ties  of  friendship  had  been  formed.  Contrary  to  the 
adage  that  "a  prophet  hath  no  honor  in  his  own  coun- 
try," the  whole  Schmauk  family  was  welcomed  with  open 
arms.  Then,  too,  did  not  "Old  Salem"  have  an  honored 
history?  With  such  pastors  and  leaders  as  John  Caspar 
Stoever,  Frederick  Augustus  Muhlenberg  (speaker  of 
the  first  and  third  Congresses  of  the  United  States), 
George  Lochman  and  Dr.  Krotel  on  its  roll  of  minis- 
ters, there  was  an  added  drawing  power  in  this  call  to 
Lebanon. 

From  the  parents'  point  of  view,  the  will  of  Provi- 
dence was  correctly  interpreted.  Not  only  did  his  deli- 
cate constitution  need  the  watchful  care  of  the  best  nurse, 
to  him,  in  the  world, — a  wise  and  loving  mother — but 
his  absorption  in  parish  work  and  in  his  studies  became 


40  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

such  as  to  render  him  dependent  upon  a  mother's  over- 
sight. In  fact,  he  remained  a  "mother's  boy"  to  the 
end  of  his  days,  and  after  his  elder  sister  and  both 
parents  had  passed  away,  he  leaned  upon  his  younger  sis- 
ter as  upon  a  mother.  Independent  thinker  and  origina- 
tive genius  that  he  was,  he  in  his  formative  years  leaned 
upon  the  wisdom  and  counsel  of  his  father,  and  was  in  the 
highest  sense  a  father's  boy.  Dr.  Knubel  spoke  more  truth 
than  fiction,  when  at  the  Schmauk  memorial  service 
held  in  the  Seminary  chapel  he  likened  this  man  of  mas- 
sive mind  and  spiritual  power  to  a  child,  for  the  funda- 
mental quality  of  his  character  was  childlikeness. 

LEBANON    A    PARADISE 

Many  have  wondered  why  this  many-sided  and  re- 
sourceful genius  could  not  afterwards  be  enticed  away 
from  Lebanon.  The  very  roots  of  his  life  were  imbed- 
ded in  its  soil.  It  mattered  little  that  leaders  in  the 
Church  urged  him  to  become  professor  in  the  Chicago 
Seminary  in  1894,  or  later  its  president  upon  the  death 
of  Dr.  Weidner,  or  president  of  Muhlenberg  College  upon 
the  death  of  Dr.  Seip,  or  professor  of  Apologetics  in  the 
Theological  Seminary  at  Mt.  Airy;  for  he  was  rooted 
like  a  tree  to  his  native  soil,  and  he  waived  aside  all  sug- 
gestions of  what  others  might  have  believed  to  be  a  pos- 
sible wider  usefulness  which  meant  separation  from  dear 
old  Lebanon  and  especially  from  the  active  pastorate. 

He  would  have  been  ready  to  go  anywhere,  ready  to 
make  any  sacrifice,  had  he  felt  that  it  was  God's  will. 
Mere  sentiment  counted  little  with  him.  But  what  he 
needed  to  make  him  useful  to  his  Church  in  the  largest 
possible  sense  was  home  anchorage.  In  his  uncertain 
state  of  health,  this  he  could  not  have  had  away  from  his 


EARLY   PASTORATE  41 

parental  home.  There  was  his  workshop  from  which 
he  could  reach  out  in  all  directions  to  serve  in  the  many 
spheres  to  which  he  became  tied.  That  study  on  the 
third  floor,  with  a  secretary  and  a  stenographer  at  hand 
to  do  his  corresi>ondence,  read  his  proofs,  keep  the  many 
threads  of  his  literary  activities  together,  and  arrange  and 
assort  and  preserve  for  use  material  he  was  constantly 
gathering,  became  a  veritable  beehive  of  industry.  It 
was  his  citadel  or  mountain  fastness  from  which  it  would 
have  proved  most  painful  for  him  to  be  dislodged.  Mov- 
ing would  have  been  a  most  distressing  ordeal.  He 
notes  in  his  diary  on  one  occasion  his  utter  discomfiture 
when  house-cleaning  invaded  his  sanctuary.  To  set 
things  in  order  exhausted  him  far  more  than  days  and 
weeks  of  the  intensest  mental  work. 

Then,  too,  he  had  become  deeply  rooted  in  the  historic 
environment  of  that  section.  He  lived  in  its  past  and 
was  anchored  there  as  fully  as  in  his  home  life.  That 
whole  section  became  endeared  to  him. 

In  an  address  before  the  graduating  class  of  the  Leba- 
non High  School  in  1913,  he  speaks  glowingly  of  it  as 
follows : 

"Lebanon  County  is  God's  temporal  Paradise — not  fat  with 
tobacco  land  as  is  Lancaster  on  its  south,  nor  lean  with  gravels 
and  coal  measures  as  is  Schuylkill  on  its  north.  Can  you  any- 
where match  this  great  and  grand  landscape  of  ours,  a  cross- 
section  of  the  longest  valley  in  the  world,  the  Kittatinny,  extending 
from  Vermont  in  the  north  to  Georgia  in  the  south;  and  stretch- 
ing across  Pennsylvania  from  the  Susquehanna  on  the  west  to 
the  Delaware  on  the  east,  with  the  steady  sky-line  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  bounding  the  north,  and  the  South  Mountain,  broken  away 
at  Millbach  and  replaced  by  the  new  red  sandstone  furnace  hills 
of  Conewago  on  the  south?  What  variety  of  scenery  is  com- 
pressed into  this  small  palm  of  God's  hand!" 


42  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

"The  pioneers  from  the  castle-crowned  ridges  of  the  Palatinate, 
coming  into  the  hills  and  meadows  to  our  east,  thought  so,  and 
they  named  that  eastern  township  after  their  own  beloved  land, 
Heidelberg." 

"The  Moravians,  friendly  to  the  Indians  and  their  fastnesses, 
and  seeking  security  from  old  world  persecution,  thought  so, — and 
they  named  the  great  township  to  the  north  of  us,  stretching  clear 
to  the  gaps  and  the  pinnacles  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  with  its  great 
beds  of  slate,  Bethel — House  of  God — and  the  pasture  land  of  the 
country,  Hebron." 

"The  North  Germans,  viewing  the  high  rolling  heaths  and 
great  foothills  that  led  them  to  think  of  the  approach,  as  to  their 
own  Harz  Mountains,  thought  so, — and  they  named  the  township 
of  the  northwest  Hanover." 

"The  mountain  folk  of  Scotland,  who  had  immigrated  hither 
by  way  of  northern  Ireland,  were  reminded,  by  the  rising  and  the 
breaking  ground  and  the  scenes  along  the  Swatara  toward  its 
mouth,  and  the  concentrating  of  the  hills  toward  the  northwest, 
of  their  own  old  home,  and  they  called  the  township  Londonderry." 

He  then  speaks  of  "the  rich  meadow  regions  of  the  Millbach, 
pasture  lands  watered  by  brooklets,  and  in  the  center  the  Tulpe- 
hocken,  the  flower-land  where  the  turtle  wooeth;  and  the  Quitta- 
pahilla,  the  valley's  bottom-cut  of  limestone,  out  of  which  there 
bubbled  up  into  the  marshes  above  hundreds  of  tiny  springs." 

Then  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  Lebanon  he  speaks  of  the 
"miniature  and  agricultural  Switzerland"  of  which  it  is  the  center. 
He  recalls  incidents  in  its  history  which  would  entitle  it  to  cele- 
brate more  than  one  centennial— the  Salem  Church  building,  for 
instance,  being  at  that  time  more  than  a  century  old.  He  pictures 
the  Palatines,  driven  from  the  valley  of  the  Schoharie,  on  their 
journey  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Tulpehocken  to  the  fertile 
meadows  and  hilltops  near  Lebanon  which  were  made  "to  blossom 
as  the  rose." 

Who  would  leave  a  Paradise  like  that,  so  rich  in  sacred 
memories  of  a  sturdy  pioneer  race? 


EARLY   PASTORATE  43 

EARLY    LIGHTS    AND    SHADOWS 

The  first  sermon  of  the  younger  preacher  struck  a  re- 
sponsive chord  and  awakened  bright  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions among  the  people  of  "Old  Salem."  It  made  them 
feel  that  a  new  era  was  upon  them.  In  the  father  they 
recognized  a  man  to  be  esteemed  and  revered ;  in  the 
son,  a  man  to  be  admired  and  applauded.  It  was  a  happy 
combination  of  progressive  conservatism  on  the  one 
hand,  and  enthusiastic  (yet  conservative)  progressive- 
ness  on  the  other.  There  was  an  atmosphere  of  optimism 
and  expectancy  created  from  the  start,  and  later  events 
proved  that  it  was  there  to  stay. 

Three  weeks  had  passed,  when  the  hand  of  death 
was  laid  upon  the  enfeebled  Grandfather  Schmauk,  with 
whom  the  younger  Schmauk  had  made  his  home  for  two 
years  while  a  student  at  the  University,  and  who  had 
become  a  member  of  the  Schmauk  family  in  his  declin- 
ing years.  Strong  attachments  had  been  formed.  "Oh, 
how  dearly  I  loved  him !"  is  on  record  in  the  diary  as 
the  outburst  of  love  from  the  soul  of  his  grandson  Theo- 
dore. 

Another  death  occurred  less  than  a  year  la.ter  when 
after  a  brief  visit  to  Lebanon,  his  grandmother  on  the 
maternal  side,  with  whom  and  whose  daughter  he  had 
sojourned  five  years  and  who  was  affectionately  called 
"Ma,"  passed  away.  He  says  of  her:  "She  was  more 
than  an  ordinary  grandmother  to  me,  taking  a  deep  inter- 
est in  my  personal  welfare,  helping  me  along  in  many 
ways  (financially  also),  always  ready  and  anxious  to 
listen  to  the  story  of  my  troubles  and  my  triumphs.  I 
see  few  like  her — vivacious,  cheerful,  sympathetic,  pious. 
She  was  glad  to  die." 

This  same  heart  broke  out  in  accents  of  deepest  grief 


44  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

when  nine  years  later  his  beloved  and  frail  sister  Theresa 
unexpectedly  died  and  was  brought  home  from  Chicago, 
whither  she  had  gone  to  regain  her  health  under  special 
medical  care.  Letters  reached  her  in  quick  succession 
breathing  the  most  tender  affection  and  sympathy.  He 
sought  to  encourage  and  cheer  her  in  every  possible  man- 
ner, of  which  the  following  is  a  characteristic  sample : 

My  Own  Dearest,  Sweetest  Little   Sister: 

I  wish  you  such  a  peaceful  and  restful  Christmas.  Do  not 
let  the  fact  that  you  are  away  from  home  interfere  with  you. 
For  soon  after  Christmas  comes  Easter,  that  brightest  of  all 
the  Church  Festivals,  in  the  beautiful  season  of  Spring,  and 
long  before  that  time  you  will  be  with  us  again,  to  celebrate  it. 

Then  the  grass  will  begin  to  grow  green,  and  the  beautiful 
flowers  will  reappear,  and  the  sunshine  which  you  enjoy  so  much 
will   be   here   in   floods. 

But  Christmas  is  a  beautiful  Festival,  too.  How  far  away 
our  dear  Saviour  went  from  his  Father's  House  on  that  day,  to 
live  and  suffer  in  this  world  here  for  thirty-three  years  before 
He  could  return  again.  How  glad  we  are  that  He  has  been  in 
the  world.  He  is  more  to  us  than  laurel,  pine  or  holly.  He  not 
only  ornaments,  but  he  saves.  How  we  can  rest  in  Him,  and 
how  close  He  seems  to  us  in  the  Christ-child,  as  a  little  babe. 
He  is  not  so  far  above  us  that  way. 

It  is  now  so  long  since  we  have  heard  from  you,  and  your  dear 
mother  and  the  rest  of  us  are  longing  so  much  for  a  letter 
from  our  dear  one.  We  are  thinking  of  her  all  the  time,  especially 
at  this  season.  We  have  made  very  few  preparations  for  Christ- 
mas as  yet. 

Now  Good  Bye,  My  Dear,  Dear,  Darling  Sister.  This  is  not 
the  whole  of  my  Christmas  letter,  but  only  the  first  installment. 
Sick  people  ought  not  eat  a  whole  nice  cake  at  once,  but  only  a 
little  at  a  time.  So  I  thought  I  would  send  my  Christmas  letter 
"a  little  at  a  time."  Now  laugh  a  little,  and  let  the  sun  shine 
in  your  heart. 

Your  Very  Own   Most  Affectionate  Brother, 

THEODORE 

Wednesday  Night 


EARLY   PASTORATE  45 

During  his  sister's  stay,  he  prepared  a  neat 
little  brochure  entitled  "Heart  Broken,"  which  was 
intended  as  a  gift  to  her.  When  he  learned  of  her  death, 
a  poem  was  wrung  from  his  soul,  and  the  following  in- 
scription in  the  book  appears :  "For  thy  surprise  and 
comfort  this  book  came  into  being.  And  thou  hast  not 
seen  it."  The  real  Schmauk  lies  hidden  in  these  strong 
attachments. 

AN  ERA   OF  EXPANSION 

With  characteristic  enthusiasm  and  thoroughness,  the 
young  associate  pastor  took  hold  of  the  work  of  the 
parish,  interesting  himself  particularly  in  the  young  peo- 
ple. When  the  catechetical  class  was  organized  in  the 
fall,  he  had  the  catechumens  come  to  the  parsonage  in 
five  small  and  separate  groups  at  diflferent  hours  to  stimu- 
late and  assist  them  in  mastering  the  Catechism.  He 
had  made  a  thorough  study  of  the  best  catechetical  litera- 
ture and  there  speedily  appeared  his  "Outlines  for  Cate- 
chetical Instruction,"  published  in  1892. 

At  that  time,  Ingersoll  had  been  lecturing  and  was 
much  advertised  in  the  papers,  and  he  determined  to 
counteract  his  influence.  In  December  he  made  a  trip 
to  Philadelphia  to  avail  himself  of  the  necessary  litera- 
ture with  which  to  make  a  thorough  study  of  atheism 
and  preached  "two  immensely  laborious  sermons,"  as 
he  says,  to  crowded  churches.  The  local  papers  con- 
tained lengthy  extracts  of  the  sermons,  which  made  a 
most  favorable  impression.  About  this  time,  hypnotism 
had  become  the  sensation  of  the  hour  and  a  strong  ser- 
mon was  preached  with  telling  eflfect,  which  appeared  in 
full  in  the  daily  papers.  Two  thousand  copies  were 
printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  the  edition  was  exhausted 
in  a  very  short  time.    He  at  once  sprang  into  prominence 


46  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

in  the  city  as  a  man  of  light  and  leading  and  as  Lebanon's 
favorite  preacher.* 

At  picnics  of  the  Sunday  School  and  the  Young  Peo- 
ple's Society,  he  planned  all  the  amusements  in  elaborate 
detail.  That  of  the  former  he  pronounces  a  "grand  suc- 
cess" and  of  the  latter  he  says  that  "he  got  them  all 
to  go  home  in  the  evening  without  any  dancing."  He 
attended  institutes  and  Sunday  School  conventions  faith- 
fully and  became  favorably  known  as  a  speaker  and 
leader  wherever  he  went.  He  soon  sprang  into  favor 
among  the  Lebanon  people  irrespective  of  denominational 
affiliation,  and  afterwards  became  their  most  prominent 
and  honored  citizen. 

MISSIONS,  CHAPELS,  AND  PASTORAL  WORK 

After  the  (two  pastors  had  become  fully  anchored  in 
their  parish,  it  became  evident  to  both  that  as  soon  as  the 
renovating  of  the  old  church  building  should  be  com- 
pleted, plans  must  be  laid  for  the  expansion  of  Lutheran- 
ism  in  Lebanon  and  vicinity.  So  in  December,  1884,  we 
read :  "Presented  a  plan  for  three  missions  in  Lebanon 
and  got  it  through  Council,  and  on  second  Christmas, 
through  the  congregation."  Accordingly,  steps  were 
taken  to  bring  to  realization  these  plans  and  in  1885  Sun- 
day Schools  were  started  in  North  Lebanon  (which  in 
1890  became  Trinity  Church  under  the  care  of  Rev. 
Frank  M.  Seip,  son  of  President  Seip  of  Muhlenberg  Col- 
lege), and  in  Cornwall.  In  the  latter  place,  the  Junior 
pastor  did  much  hard  work  looking  up  members,  trudging 
over  the  hills  weary  and  footsore.     Those  were  strenu- 


*  At  a  fair  held  jointly  by  the  P.  O.  S.  of  A.  and  the  local  Band,  a 
raw  silk  upholstered  easy  chair  was  offered  as  a  prize  to  the  minister  of 
the  city  who  should  receive  the  largest  vote.  He  proved  to  be  the  favored 
one,  but  promptly  "declined  the  gift  on  principle,"  as  he  noites  in  his 
Diary.     It  added  considerably  to  his  prestige. 


St.  Paul's.  Annvilue,  and  the  Missions 


EARLY   PASTORATE  47 

ous  days  and  the  exhaustion  due  to  his  labors  was  in 
large  measure  responsible  for  his  severe  illness  in  1889. 
A  congregation  at  Annville  was  under  the  care  of  the 
two  pastors,  and  in  1889  a  mission  in  East  Lebanon 
(which  later  became  St.  James'  Church)  was  organized. 
In  1891  another  mission  school  was  started  at  Sunnyside. 
By  1886,  Trinity  mission  and  the  Cornwall  mission  had 
two  inviting  chapels.  By  November,  1890,  St.  James'  had 
a  chapel,  and  a  year  later,  a  church  building  was  turned 
over  for  use  to  the  Sunnyside  mission. 

This  kept  the  young  preacher  busy,  not  only  with 
the  construction  of  the  chapels,  every  detail  of  which 
he  looked  after,  but  also  with  pastoral  visits,  and  with 
three  or  four  addresses  every  Sunday  besides  his  ser- 
mons. After  all  this  successful  work,  it  is  not  be  won- 
dered at  that  later  he  was  urged  by  Dr.  Seiss,  Chair- 
man of  the  Philadelphia  Mission  Committee,  to  become 
a  sort  of  general  missionary  in  that  city.  He  declined, 
believing  that  he  was  not  fitted  for  that  kind  of  work 
and  that  it  would  abridge  his  usefulness  in  the  future. 
He  was  both  mistaken  and  correct.  Had  he  undertaken 
mission  work,  he  would  have  eminently  succeeded,  but 
it  would  have  been  at  the  cost  of  his  much  wider  use- 
fulness. 

As  a  pastor,  he  was  very  active.  In  his  visitations  of 
the  sick  he  was  most  conscientious  and  faithful — and 
sympathetic  to  a  marked  degree.  One  of  his  members 
laid  up  with  a  serious  disease  relates  that  he  braved  a  ter- 
rible blizzard  when  few  people  dared  to  venture  out  of 
doors,  in  order  to  bring  the  comforts  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  sick  man.  That  heroic  act  of  devotion  is  gratefully 
and  admiringly  remembered  to  this  day.  Similar  in- 
stances are  mentioned  by  the  older  members  of  Salem. 


48  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

He  did  much  pastoral  work  previous  to  organizing 
his  catechetical  classes.  In  later  years  when  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  General  Council  and,  after  an  illness,  he 
notes  in  his  diary  a  day's  itinerary  that  covered  a  large 
part  of  Lebanon,  looking  up  catechumens  for  his  class, 
and  after  the  long  and  tedious  tramp  says,  "I  seemed  to 
suffer  no  ill  effects." 


CHAPTER  VI 
Literary  Activities  Begin 

Style  is  the  gossamer  on  which  the  seeds  of  truth  float  through 
the  world.  In  cultivating  the  form,  we  should  not  separate  it 
from  the  substance.  True  art,  the  most  perfect  form,  it  has  been 
said,  w  nothing  less  than  the  clearest  and  most  transparent  appear- 
ance of  the  substance. — Schniauk. 

"THE    VILLAGE    BLACKSMITH" 

EARLY  in  1885,  there  appeared  in  one  of  the  local 
papers  a  brief  article  entitled  "The  Village 
Blacksmith."  The  writer  pictures  himself  as 
a  retired  blacksmith  who  can  no  longer  "make  the  flame 
roar  and  the  sparks  fly,"  but  in  whose  heart  there  glows 
a  fire.  "If  I  no  longer  forge  the  red  hot  iron,  there  is 
still  an  anvil  on  which  I  can  make  the  sparks  fly." 

This  blacksmith  was  none  other  than  the  youthful 
preacher  of  Salem.  He  did  make  the  sparks  fly.  He  had 
come  to  Lebanon  to  make  an  impress  not  only  on  the 
life  of  a  parish  but  on  the  life  of  a  city  and  a  county. 
On  his  anvil  he  forged  many  a  weapon  with  which  to 
deal  blows  at  the  enemy.  "H  the  strokes  of  my  pen 
are  not  as  heavy  as  the  blows  of  my  hammer,  they  are 
not  as  clumsy  either,  and  I  can  still  hit  hard  and  quick." 

One  would  expect  from  this  a  caustic,  cynical  critic 
of  the  Carlyle  type ;  but  far  from  it.  He  criticizes  rather 
like  an  Addison.  There  is  plenty  of  good  nature  and 
pleasantry  in  it  all.  When  a  new  mayor  is  elected,  he 
expects  him  to  "do  something"  worth  celebrating  a  cen- 
tury hence;  he  wants  the  city  run  as  "a  business"  and 
not  -to  please  the  politicians;  he  wants  more  genuine 
"public  spirit;"  he  lauds  Mr.  Coleman  for  putting  Leba- 
E 


50  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

noil's  mountain  of  iron  into  the  melting  pot  to  make 
it  serviceable  to  mankind.  Then  he  tells  us  all  about  coke ; 
all  about  tallow  candles  and  electric  lights ;  all  about  the 
planting  of  trees  on  Arbor  Day ;  all  about  the  "household 
slave,"  the  "meddlesome  gadabout," — he  had  little  use 
for  the  loquacious  talker  or  gossip — and  the  "j aunty- 
coquette," — he  had  much  less  use  for  the  painted  butrer- 
fly  or  society  woman,  punctilious  about  ceremony  but 
deficient  in  sincerity  and  life  purpose.  He  whips  up 
Lebanon  enterprise  and  shames  citizens  for  allowing  nails 
and  horseshoes  to  be  bought  at  Pittsburgh  when  iron  is 
so  plentiful  near  by;  and  clothing  and  other  articles  to 
be  bought  from  John  Wanamaker  when  some  Wana- 
maker  should  be  born  in  Lebanon.  He  points  out  eye- 
sores in  Lebanon  streets  and  Lebanon  buildings.  He 
touches  up  Lebanon  history ;  he  wants  his  readers  to 
take  pride  in  the  city  and  in  its  past.  When  sick  and 
indisposed  for  a  time,  he  reappears  and  informs  his  read- 
ers that  something  has  happened  to  him  akin  to  what 
happens  to  a.  blacksmith  when  he  shoes  a  horse  and  gets 
kicked.  In  all  these  papers,  we  see  the  budding  citizen 
who  later  took  so  prominent  a  part  in  shaping  the  life 
and  policies  of  the  city. 

"HEART  GLOW" 

Hardly  had  the  fires  of  the  "Village  Blacksmith"  died 
out,  when  a  new  and  different  fire  was  kindled  in  June, 
1887,  and  the  sparks  on  the  anvil  made  to  fly  through 
the  columns  of  The  Lutheran.  Under  the  title  of  "Heart 
Glow  Papers,"  there  appeared  the  first  entitled,  "O  Press, 
Art  Thou  So  Great?"  In  it  he  complains  that  "the  news- 
paper is  usurping  the  functions  of  the  Bench,  the  Pulpit 
and  the  School."  Then  follows,  for  two  and  a  half 
years,  a  series  of  nearly  a  hundred  articles  on  a  great 


LITERARY    ACTIVITIES  51 

variety  of  subjects.  Here  the  vein  is  more  serious  than 
in  "Village  Blacksmith."  It  is  often  idyllic  and  idealistic, 
and  reveals  a  studied  effort  to  cultivate  literary  style. 
But  in  the  main  these  effusions,  while  full  of  the  play  of 
the  imagination,  are  most  stimulating  and  suL'gestive. 
Others  again  are  highly  informing  and  reveal  a  knowl- 
edge of  facts  and  history  above  the  ordinary.  Still  oth- 
ers show  a  deep  and  intelligent  appreciation  of  Church 
events  and  problems. 

In  a  lengthy  article  on  "Why  Music  Moves  Us,"  his 
mind  already  runs  in  a  channel  that  prepares  us  for  his 
"Voice  in  Speech  and  Song,"  which  appeared  in  1890, 
passed  through  five  editions,  and  received  unqualified 
commendation  in  dozens  of  periodicals  from  Boston  to 
San  Francisco. 

The  Graphic  of  Chicago  condensed  the  thought  of 
most  of  them  when  it  said:  "A  man  who  is  able  to 
write  a  treatise  conveying  accurate  scientific  knowledge 
to  an  average  unscientific  reader,  in  a  manner  which 
clothes  the  dry  bones  of  fact  with  flesh  and  color,  is 
possessed  of  an  admirable  faculty." 

In  another  article,  suggested  by  an  experience  he  had 
had  on  a  train  with  a  charming  conversationalist,  he 
forecasts  what  appeared  in  a  publication  of  his  in  1889 
entitled,  "Charms  and  Secrets  of  Good  Conversation." 
Dr.  Krotel  said  of  it:  "I  am  ready  to  pronounce  it  one 
of  the  most  charming,  fresh  and  original  essays  I  have 
read  in  a  long  time."  Looking  over  the  list  of  many  re- 
views outside  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  one  finds  that  Dr. 
Krotel  spoke  for  nearly  all  of  them.  Dr.  Trumbull  of 
the  Sunday  School  Times  praised  it  highly.  This  book 
speedily  passed  through  its  ninth  thousand. 

Readers  of  the  Heart  Glow  Papers  were  always  sure 


52  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  be  treated  with  the  unexpected.  Now  they  read  of 
"The  Much  Resounding  Sea;"  now  of  "Bad  Breeding 
in  Church";  now  of  a  "Bunch  of  Synodical  Roses;"  now 
of  "Star  Gazers;"  now  of  "Booming  the  Muhlenberg 
Centennial ;"  now  of  "Sensitive  People ;"  now  of  the 
"Devil's  Lawyers ;"  now  of  "Velvets  and  Plushes ;"  now 
of  an  "Unsatisfactory  Pastorate."  Every  now  and  then 
he  plunges  into  history.  Before  the  Synod  met  in  Lan- 
caster that  year  more  than  three  pages  of  The  Lutheran 
tell  the  story  of  the  City's  birth  and  youth  and  manhood. 
He  tells  first  of  all  about  its  royal  pretensions ;  how  "its 
very  streets  are  blooded" — for  does  it  not  have  a  King's,  a 
Queen's,  a  Duke's,  a  Prince's  street? — how  the  Fathers 
failed  "to  induce  Congress  to  locate  the  Capital  of  the 
United  States  at  Lancaster ;"  and  finally  how  Old  Trinity 
figured  in  the  history  of  the  Old  Mother  Synod,  through  its 
distinguished  pastors.  Later  seventeen  long  articles  on 
Japan  appear.  One  reading  them  would  not  guess  that 
the  writer  had  never  seen  Japan.  But  he  did  see  it 
through  the  eyes  of  several  friends  who  wrote  descrip- 
tive letters  from  the  Sunrise  Kingdom. 

There  is  something  about  these  Heart  Glow  Papers — 
a  novelty,  an  oddness,  a  freshness,  a  warmth  and  a  charm 
— that  makes  the  heart  of  the  reader  glow.  You  are  in 
touch  with  a  soul  that  burns  with  the  fire  of  youthful 
energy  and  enthusiasm. 

CRITICAL   AND    ANXIOUS   DAYS 

"So  many  worlds,  so  much  to  do, 
So  little  done." 
In   October,   1889,  the  Heart  Glow   Papers   suddenly 
ceased.     The  last  one  is  dated  October  24,   1889.     On 
reading  it  one  seems  to  feel  that  it  suggests  a  premoni- 
tion of  some  impending  physical  breakdown.     The  above 


LITERARY    ACTIVITIES  53 

quotation  is  its  theme.  He  then  speaks  of  the  many 
worlds  in  which  in  this  life  it  is  possible  to  live — the 
world  of  business,  of  custom  and  fashion,  of  art,  of 
science,  of  mechanics,  of  philosophy,  of  amusements ; 
"the  more  important  worlds"  of  history,  of  law,  of  love, 
of  family  life,  of  citizenship  and  the  boundless  world 
of  books.  Taking  a  glance  at  the  last-named  world,  show- 
ing how  he  kept  track  of  the  literature  of  the  day,  he 
speaks  of  the  September  list  of  books,  (as  announced  in 
"Dial"  by  American  publishers)  as  including  28  books 
of  biography  and  memoirs,  20  of  history,  9  of  political 
and  social  studies,  4  of  economics  and  finance,  10  of  lit- 
erary miscellany,  5  of  reference,  26  of  fiction,  11  of 
poetry,  10  of  travel  and  observation,  5  of  music  and  art, 
6  of  science  and  philosophy  and  hygiene,  14  of  theology 
and  religion,  3  of  sporting,  5  miscellaneous,  43  holiday 
books,  and  45  of  juvenile  literature. 

Looking  into  this  world  of  many  worlds,  in  none  of 
which  he  was  a  stranger,  he  says :  "All  these  possibili- 
ties and  demands  and  claims,  in  all  these  many  worlds 
of  thought  and  action,  press  themselves  upon  every  edu- 
cated or  thoughtful  young  man  of  our  age.  Sometimes 
they  press  so  hard  as  to  crush."  Then  of  the  soul  who 
yearns  to  enter  them,  he  says :  "The  interruptions  un- 
foreseen, possibly  providential,  which  will  hold  him  back, 
may  affect  the  earnest  struggling  soul  with  cumulative 
force,  and  break  the  man  in  mind,  in  heart,  in  hopes,  in 
health."* 


*  Interruptions  that  broke  into  his  routine  of  study  or  other  work  always 
proved  most  annoying  to  him.  This  explains  why  he  never  cared  for 
vacations.  Even  while  a  student  at  the  Seminary,  he  tries  to  explain 
why,  when  he  is  at  home  in  the  summer,  he  is  dissatisfied.  He  then 
writes:  "I  have  been  very  much  perplexed  to  find  the  reason  but  never 
could  explain  until  just  now  it  struck  me  that  my  zvork  and  my  duty  are 
here."  "When  away  from  his  work,  a  man  is  not  in  a  normal  state." 
When  later,  in  mudi-impaired  health,  his  physician  urged  the  necessity 
of  taking  a  vacation,  he  replied:  "Why,  I  do  take  vacations  when  I  travel 
to  and  from  Philadelphia." 


54  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  became  prostrated  with 
typhoid  fever.  His  Hfe  hung  in  the  balance  for  six  weeks 
and  was  despaired  of.  Those  were  anxious  days,  not 
only  for  the  family  but  for  many  of  his  friends  in  the 
synod  and  beyond.  Prayers  went  up  in  his  behalf  when 
the  conference  to  which  he  belonged  met.  Anxious  in- 
quiries came  in  from  all  sides.  He  later  noted  in  his 
diary :  "I  was  very  sick ;  for  45  days  without  anything 
to  eat." 

He  recovered,  but  from  that  time  on  he  ceased  to  be  a 
well  man.  For  three  and  a  half  years  after  this  sick- 
ness, he  suffered  intensely  from  an  open  wound  in  his 
leg  which  was  subject  to  swellings  when  not  kept  in  a  hori- 
zontal position.  He  used  all  sorts  of  bandages  and  appli- 
ances to  find  relief.  This  illness  proved  to  be  the  beginning 
of  a  long  series.  He  became  extremely  sensitive  to  colds 
and  later  in  his  ministry  had  one  attack  of  grippe  after 
another.  These  attacks  came  through  exposure  to  the 
weather  and  through  over-work,  but  chiefly  from  over- 
worry.  He  was  subject  also  to  severe  attacks  of  indiges- 
tion. He  was  taken  seriously  sick  with  it  when  he  acted  as 
Chancellor  at  Mt.  Gretna,  some  time  in  1895  or  1896,  and 
doubts  as  to  his  recovery  were  entertained.  In  1902,  he 
was  so  seriously  sick  that  little  hope  for  his  life  was 
cherished. 

In  1905,  when  acting  as  president  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil at  Milwaukee  he  had  to  take  refuge  in  the  Passavant 
Hospital  where,  he  says,  "Dr.  Waters  saved  my  life."  In 
1909,  he  suffered  from  a  serious  case  of  obstruction  of  the 
bowels  and  barely  escaped  with  his  Hfe.  In  1913  he  was 
most  seriously  ill  from  the  9th  of  January  to  the  middle  of 
February  with  a  similar  attack  of  acute  indigestion.  In 
the  years    following,   breakdowns   were  the   rule   rather 


LITERARY    ACTIVITIES  55 

■than  the  exception.  The  colossal  amount  of  work  done 
by  him  in  the  last  decade  of  his  life  was  done  by  an  in- 
valid of  whom  it  could  not  be  predicted  from  one  day  to 
another  whether  he  would  be  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

What  sustained  him  in  all  his  sicknesses  was  his  in- 
domitable will.  It  kept  his  mind  so  completely  riveted  to 
his  work  as  to  make  him  more  or  less  oblivious  to  sick- 
ness. He  lived  almost  more  out  of  the  body  than  in  the 
body.  His  mind  refused  to  be  bound  to  its  physical 
environment  and  lost  itself  in  his  work.  It  was  wedded 
more  closely  to  his  calling  than  to  his  body. 

DR.    TRUMBULL    AND    THE    SUNDAY    SCHOOL    TIMES 

In  this  period  there  grew  up  an  intimacy  between  the 
young  Lebanon  preacher  and  the  well-known  Bible 
scholar  and  editor  of  the  Sunday  School  Times,  Dr.  H. 
Clay  Trumbull.  This  is  well  worthy  of  mention.  That 
intimacy  continued  throughout  Dr.  Trumbull's  life  and 
had  more  than  a  little  to  do  with  Dr.  Schmauk's  later 
interest  and  development  along  lines  of  Sunday  School 
work.  He  doubtless  made  the  acquaintance  of  Dr. 
Trumbull  while  a  student  at  the  University  where  the 
latter  at  times  delivered  courses  of  lectures  on  Bible  sub- 
jects. He  wrote  for  the  Sunday  School  Times  as  early 
as  September  24,  1887,  when  a  clear-cut  discussion  on 
"the  dangers  of  illustration  in  teaching  and  preaching" 
appears.  About  a  year  later  another  illuminating  ar- 
ticle on  "The  Teacher  as  a  Student  of  Motives"  is  found 
in  his  scrap-book. 

A  long  correspondence  between  the  two  shows  that 
the  young  literary  adventurer  was  regularly  contributing 
editorials  for  a  series  of  years,  probably  up  to  the  time 
of  his  father's  death.     A  letter,  dated  March  29,  1889, 


56  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

reads  thus :  "Your  editorial  on  'Dealings  with  Dear 
Ones'  has  won  golden  opinions  from  every  side.  A  lady 
in  this  city,  whose  judgment  I  value,  wrote  and  asked  my 
permission  to  reprint  it  in  tract  form  for  private  distri- 
bution. She  deems  it  timely,  admirable  and  strong.  Mrs. 
Margaret  Sangster,  who  is  the  new  editor  of  Harper's 
Bazar,  and  whom  you  probably  know  as  a  poet  and  gen- 
eral writer,  sent  her  special  thanks  to  the  writer  of  this 
editorial.  I  congratulate  you."  Less  than  a  week  later, 
Dr.  Trumbull  writes :  "Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that 
your  life-work  might  be  in  this  editorial  field?  Do  you 
see  no  possibility  of  such  a  thing,  I  have  wondered  over 
it.     I  wonder  whether  you  have." 

The  influence  which  Dr.  Trumbull  wielded  over  him 
may  be  judged  by  many  expressions  of  admiration  that 
fell  from  his  lips,  and  from  frequent  quotations  of  Dr. 
TrumibuU's  sayings  that  had  made  a  deep  impression  on 
him.  Among  these  were  two  that  we  often  heard  him 
utter :  "I  always  keep  a  big  slice  of  infallibility  on  my 
editorial  table ;"  "There  are  times  when  a  Christian  must 
refuse  to  do  good."  By  the  former  he  simply  meant  to 
say  that  an  editor  should  be  so  sure  of  his  ground  that 
he  never  need  take  anything  back.  By  the  latter  he 
meant,  that  there  are  often  movements  set  on  foot  and 
methods  adopted  to  accomplish  certain  worthy  ends 
which  forbid  a  Christian  from  taking  part. 

There  was  probably  no  one  outside  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  whose  influence  upon  his  character  was  more 
potent  than  that  of  Dr.  Trumbull,  with  perhaps  the  single 
exception  of  Dr.  Thompson,  his  favorite  teacher.  He 
received  from  him  much  inspiration,  not  only  in  the  way 
of  quickening  his  interest  in  Sunday  School  work  but 
also  in  encouraging  a  thorough  study  of  the  Bible  and 


LITERARY    ACTIVITIES  57 

the  critical  problems  connected  with  its  text  and  his- 
tory. Dr.  Trumbull  seems  to  have  been  stimulated  in 
return,  for  more  than  once  he  craved  personal  interviews 
in  order  to  discuss  with  him  vital  questions  concerning 
the  Bible  which  were  then  much  aired  in  periodicals  and 
books. 

Following  is  Dr.  Schmauk's  tribute  to  Dr.  Trumbull 
as  it  appeared  in  The  Lutheran  under  "Sunday  School 
Notes,"  upon  the  latter's  death. 

MEMORIES   OF    DR.   TRUMBULL 

"Dr.  Trumbull  was  Sunday-school  Notes*  warmest,  dearest,  and 
noblest  literary  friend.  The  friendship  was  of  Dr.  Trumbull's 
seeking.  When  Sunday-school  Notes  first  began  to  write,  as  a 
young  man,  and  his  articles  were  rejected  by  papers  to  whom  he 
would  not  now  think  of  offering  them,  it  was  Dr.  Trumbull,  then 
an  entire  stranger,  who  discovered,  accepted,  paid  for  and  pub- 
lished them,  who  asked  for  more  of  them  and  who  encouraged 
the  writer  in  his  highest  aspirations. 

"Whenever  the  writer,  a  youth,  called  on  the  busy  man,  he  was 
asked  up  in  the  inner  office,  all  work  was  dropped  and  several 
hours  were  spent  in  heart  to  heart  communion  of  the  most  inspir- 
ing kind. 

"The  friendship  of  Dr.  Trumbull  was  of  the  character  which 
finds  its  happiness  in  giving,  no  less  than  in  receiving.  His  ideals 
of  love  and  friendship  were  the  loftiest.  The  truth  that  it  was 
nobler  to  love  than  to  be  loved  found  in  him  its  loveliest  living 
exponent. 

"To 'give  comfort  and  inspiration  was  of  more  importance  to 
him  than  to  receive  it.  And  yet  his  heart  yearned  for  sympathy 
and  communion.  Often  would  he  say,  'Your  visits  are  like  oxy- 
gen to  me.'  Or  write,  'Your  love  in  the  words  by  the  written 
and  printed  page  help  me  to  go  on  my  way  rejoicing,  even 
though  I  do  not  see  you  in  the  flesh,  and  I  am  more  and  more 
your  loving  friend.'  Or  again,  'How  often  I  think  of  you.  I 
opened  a  drawer  in  my  office  table  today  and  came  upon  a  letter 
from  you,  kept  there  for  years.'    Or  again,  'Your  letter  gladdened 


58  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

my  heart.'  Or  again,  'You  are  very  often  in  my  thoughts,  and 
I  often  wish  I  could  see  you  and  speak  with  you.'  Or  again, 
'I  wish  I  could  see  you  oftener,  it  would  do  me  good.'  Or 
again,  'If  I  could  see  you  oftener,  I  believe  I  could  do  more.' 
Or  again,  'Your  letter  refreshes  me  and  gives  me  a  good  start 
for  the  week.'  Or  again,  'You  have  shown  in  many  ways,  in 
earlier  and  later  days,  a  warmer  appreciation  of  that  side  of  my 
nature,  as  shown  in  my  writings,  that  I  wanted  to  have  felt, 
than  any  person  I  know.'  " 

There  is  scarcely  a  doubt  that  in  these  interviews  was 
born  the  purpose  of  counteracting  the  speculations  of  the 
negative  critical  school  as  represented  by  Cheyne  and 
others,  which  in  1894  resulted  in  the  publication  of  his 
"Negative  Criticism  and  the  Old  Testament."  He  en- 
tered into  the  preparation  of  this  his  first  important 
theological  work  with  a  zeal  and  thoroughness  that  knew 
no  bounds.  He  made  himself  familiar  with  all  the  lead- 
ing higher  critics  in  Germany,  England  and  America, 
and  mastered  their  literature  on  the  subject.  Though 
only  a  little  over  thirty  years  of  age  when  he  began  his 
studies,  he  displayed  a  maturity  of  thought  and  a  range 
of  knowledge  that  was  remarkable.  At  that  time,  the 
circle  of  orthodox  scholars  who  were  abreast  of  the 
times  on  the  subject  was  limited  and  the  book  did  not 
reach  the  wide  circulation  it  deserved.  Had  he  waited 
ten  years,  it  would  have  been  otherwise.  Those  who 
were  prepared  to  appreciate  its  argument  spoke  most 
highly  of  it.  The  following  estimate  of  the  book  by  Dr. 
Jacobs  appeared  in  The  Lutheran  Church  Review: 

"If  this  book  had  been  published  at  Leipzig,  or  in  London,  or 
in  Edinburgh,  it  would  be  conceded  the  place  of  one  of  the  first 
books  of  the  year,  if  not  of  the  decade.  Every  page  shows  not 
only  careful  thought,  but  also  thoroughly  trained  scientific  meth- 
ods. The  assumptions  of  the  negative  critics  are  correctly  stated, 
and  are  then   subjected   to  an   analysis   that   is  as   searching  and 


LITERARY    ACTIVITIES  59 

relentless  as  that  which  these  critics  glory  in  applying  to  Holy 
Scripture.  It  is  all  the  more  severe  and  the  argument  is  all  the 
more  overwhelming,  because  of  the  entire  candor  with  which 
the  strength  of  the  critics  in  certain  directions  is  conceded.  It 
seems  as  though  nothing  can  be  said  in  their  favor,  that  is  not 
to  be  found  here,  as  the  prelude  to  a  complete  exposure  of  their 
real  weakness  in  the  sphere  where  they  claim,  above  all  things,  to 
speak  with  authority. 

"The  case  made  by  Mr.  Schmauk  is  so  strong,  that  one  can- 
not imagine  how  it  could  in  any  way  be  strengthened.  The 
Negative  Criticism  needs  no  one  to  refute  it,  since  this  book  has 
appeared ;  and  if  it  were  only  extensively  circulated,  we  would 
say  that  the  'battle,  on  the  line  thus  far  followed,  is  over.  This 
opinion  may  seem  extravagant ;  but  we  believe  it  to  be  entirely 
just." 

These  beginnings  of  his  Hterary  efforts  were  but  the 
foreshadowings  of  the  later  floods  of  literature  that  kept 
pouring  dow^n  upon  the  press  and  kept  it  constantly  busy. 
He  could  drink  in  more  and  pour  out  more  in  a  given 
time  than  almost  any  writer  of  prominence  known  to 
the  Church  since  the  days  of  Luther.  In  this  period,  his 
pamphlet  on  The  Lutheran  Church  and  another  on  Hyp- 
notism— both  characterized  by  freshness,  vivacity  and 
force — deserve  to  be  mentioned. 


CHAPTER  VII 
As  Educator 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA   CHAUTAUQUA 

Generations,  like  inditnduals,  have  debts.  To  educate  is  to 
pay  what  we  ozve  those  ahead  of  us  to  those  coming  after  us. — 
Schmmik. 

ON  the  northern  slope  of  the  South  Mountain,  ten 
miles  from  Lebanon,  with  the  well-known  health 
resorts  of  Wernersville  at  one  end  of  the  range 
and  those  of  Pen  Mar  at  the  other,  there  stretches 
"along  the  green  slopes  of  the  hillsides  by  a  brook  in 
a  lovely  glade  and  above  the  low-bosomed  lake,"  what 
since  1892  has  come  to  be  known  as  the  Chautauqua 
Grounds  of  Mt.  Gretna.  Since  easy  access  to  Mt.  Gretna 
has  been  provided  by  the  Cornwall  and  Lebanon  Rail- 
road, it  has  become  Lebanon's  great  park  and  pleasure 
ground.  "It  possesses  the  quiet,  majestic  beauty  of  the 
primeval  forest.  It  forms  the  arc  of  a  vast  amphitheater, 
with  dark,  sheltering  hills  rising  in  the  rear  and  grand 
open  plateaus  unrolling  in  front.  In  this  pleasure  ground 
of  unlimited  expanse,  the  massive  oak  and  broad-spread- 
ing chestnut  are  abundant.  The  maple  and  dogwood  are 
seen  everywhere.  Groves  of  great  sighing  pines  slum- 
ber in  stately  presence."  "A  noted  botanist  has  said  that 
he  knows  of  no  section  in  the  Middle  States  where  a 
greater  variety  and  rarer  specimens  of  plants  and  flow- 
ers can  be  found."  "The  water  gushing  directly  from 
subterranean  chambers,  deep  down  in  the  primitive  geo- 
logic rock  stratum  of  which  the  South  Mountain  is  com- 
posed, is  wholesome,  and,  as  all  visitors  of  the  park 
declare,  the  best  water  they  have  ever  tasted." 


Chancellor    Schmauk 


f    1 

^^^€^^'XZ.^''^ 

-  ■  c^^t  ■ 

fk  ■#' 

■lVJ  i 

H 

^^^^^^ 

w^ 

Mt.   Gretna  Chautauqua   Faculty,    1896 


AS    EDUCATOR  61 

The  reader  will  at  once  recognize  the  above  descrip- 
tion as  that  of  the  young  Lebanon  preacher  who  became 
the  originator  and  inspiration  and  mainstay  of  what 
proved  to  be,  especially  during  the  summers  between 
1892  and  1896,  a  highly  successful  Chautauqua,  one  that 
took  rank  with  the  best  in  the  country  and  had  educa- 
tional features  of  great  value  which  others  less  serious 
and  more  bent  on  providing  entertainment  and  recreation 
did  not  offer. 

While  the  suggestion  first  came  from  the  Pennsylva- 
nia German  historian  and  poet,  L.  L.  Grumbine,  and  the 
initiative  from  the  General  Passenger  Agent  of  the  Corn- 
wall and  Lebanon  Railroad,  R.  B.  Gordon,  the  real 
creator  of  the  Chautauqua  and  its  master  mind  was  Theo- 
dore E.  Schmauk.  When  Messrs.  Grumbine  and  Gor- 
don first  talked  the  matter  over,  the  former  at  once 
directed  Mr.  Gordon  to  the  progressive  young  Lebanon 
preacher.  The  result  of  the  interview  was  the  issue  of  a 
call,  signed  by  Mr.  Gordon,  on  September  12,  1891,  for 
a  meeting  on  September  24th  "to  form  a  permanent 
organization  of  a  State  Chautauqua  Society."  A  plan 
of  organization,  outlined,  of  course,  by  Schmauk,  was 
presented  and  later  adopted  in  essentials,  a  stock  com- 
pany formed,  a  charter  secured,  and  the  following  sum- 
mer, July  12,  1892,  the  Chautauqua  opened,  with  Dr. 
Warfield  of  Lafayette  College  as  the  first  lecturer  of  an 
elaborate  program  and  Dr.  Max  Hark  as  Chancellor. 
As  chairman  on  "organization,  constitution  and  finance," 
young  Schmauk  took  the  entire  management  of  the  affair 
in  hand,  with  the  hearty  cooperation  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
George  B.  Stewart,  a  Presbyterian  preacher  of  note  at 
Harrisburg  (and  later  President  of  the  Theological  Semi- 
nary at  Auburn,  N.  Y.),  whom  he  advocated  and  secured 


62  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  act  as  president  of  the  Chautauqua.  A  warm  and 
lasting  friendship  sprang  up  between  the  two,  and  they 
labored  together  for  four  years  in  closest  harmony,  and 
brought  the  Summer  School  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency 
and  popularity,  when  both  resigned  for  reasons  that  will 
presently  appear. 

Dr.  Ste^vart  writes  concerning  his  friend  and  co-worker 
as  follows : 

"My  memories  of  Theodore  are  among  the  most  agreeable 
of  my  life.  His  remarkable  straightforwardness  in  thinking  and 
speaking,  his  practical  common  sense  coupled  with  his  exact  and 
wide  scholarship,  his  earnest  piety  and  keen  intellectual  interests, 
his  uncompromising  conscientiousness  and  gentleness  of  spirit,  his 
marked  physical  limitations  due  to  ill  health  and  his  prodigious 
productiveness  of  unremitting  activity  made  him  a  unique  char- 
acter. 

"I  soon  came  to  trust,  to  admire  and  to  love  him.  During  the 
five  years  we  were  associated  together  in  the  Chautauqua  work 
we  became  as  brothers,  and  worked  and  planned  for  the  interests 
there  involved  as  one  man. 

"I  regarded  him  as  one  of  the  great  souls  that  I  have  met. 
There  was  nothing  petty,  low,  unworthy  about  his  thought,  his 
conduct,  his  character.  No  one  could  come  into  his  presence  with- 
out realizing  at  once  that  he  was  in  the  presence  of  a  most  ex- 
ceptional and  exceptionally  able  man.  He  was  one  of  God's  noble- 
men, and  tnie  disciple  of  the  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all." 

It  was  essentially  Schmauk's  Chautauqua  from  the 
start.  He  determined  what  should  be  both  its  name 
and  its  character — though  not  without  a  battle,  being 
opposed  by  two  clergymen.  He  insisted  on  securing  from 
Mr.  Coleman  its  present  location  south  of  the  lake  after 
the  latter  had  offered  an  unsuitable  site.  The  first  pro- 
gram was  made  out  in  his  office  and  was  his  creation. 
He  wrote  over  fifteen  hundred  letters  the  first  year,  and 
over  two  thousand,  the  second,  in  his  effort  as  chairman 
of  the  Executive  Committee  to  make  the  Chautauqua  a 


AS    EDUCATOR  63 

success.  He  inspired  the  holding  of  public  meetings  in 
Lancaster,  Harrisburg,  Middletown,  Reading  and  Phila- 
delphia to  enlarge  the  membership  of  the  Stock  Com- 
pany and  to  advertise  the  school.  An  immense  amount 
of  labor  fell  upon  his  shoulders,  for  no  one  could  be 
found  who  could  guide  and  direct  affairs  as  did  he. 

After  three  successful  seasons,  it  was  felt  that  the 
real  power  behind  the  throne  must  now  be  given  the  seat 
upon  it  and  handed  the  scepter,  and  so  it  happened  that 
he  acted  as  chancellor  in  1895.  So  inspiring  was  his  lead- 
ership and  so  distinguished  and  interesting  his  galaxy 
of  teachers,  lecturers  and  entertainers  that  the  fame  of 
the  School  was  everywhere  noised  about,  and  the  attend- 
ance most  gratifyingly  large.  His  brief,  incisive  intro- 
ductory talks  on  various  subjects  every  morning  proved 
to  be  most  popular  and  he  became  recognized  as  a  chan- 
cellor without  a  peer.  When  Bishop  Vincent,  the  origina- 
tor of  the  Chautauqua  idea,  visited  the  school  and  made 
addresses,  it  was  whispered  about  that  the  old  experi- 
enced chancellor  had  to  be  content  to  dwell  in  the  shadow 
of  another. 

In  1895  strained  relations  between  the  Cornwall  and 
Lebanon  R.  R.  and  the  Chautauqua  resulted  from  the  un- 
willingness of  the  former  to  forego  running  Sunday  trains 
and  to  give  promised  financial  support  to  the  project.  So 
both  the  chancellor  and  Dr.  Stewart,  the  president,  de- 
cided that  unless  the  Board  insisted  that  the  Railroad  must 
come  up  to  its  pledge  or  promise,  and  would  secure  the 
needed  cooperation,  they  would  resign.  Young  Schmauk 
appeared  before  the  Board,  some  of  whom  were  ready 
to  make  concessions  to  the  Railroad,  and  made  such  an 
eloquent  and  masterly  presentation  of  his  case  as  to  call 
forth  highest  commendation.     He  prepared  a  statement 


64  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  be  presented  to  the  Railroad  as  an  ultimatum,  and 
with  lawyerlike  precision  and  force;  but  without  the 
desired  effect.  It  was  then  decided  that  both  would  resign, 
though  not  until  after  they  had  done  all  to  make  the  1896 
Chautauqua  a  great  success. 

The  resignation  of  the  chancellor  was  received  with 
universal  regret  and  with  earnest  petitions  that  it  be 
recalled ;  for  he  had  won  an  enviable  reputation  as  a 
most  resourceful  and  efficient  leader  in  this  sphere  of 
popular  education,  and  it  was  recognized  that  with  his 
withdrawal  a  promising  future  of  the  Chautauqua  must 
needs  be  rendered  very  doubtful.  Dr.  Gerdson  was  his 
successor;  but  enthusiasm  had  very  much  waned  and  in 
a  few  years  it  resolved  itself  into  a  summer  resort  even 
though  it  retained  the  Chautauqua  name.  One  feature 
had  characterized  it  which  was  lacking  in  other  Chau- 
tauquas.  It  was  the  academic  educational  program  which 
made  it  a  real  Summer  School  rather  than  a  recreational 
outing.  There  were  lecture  courses  on  archaeology,  his- 
tory, science,  philosophy,  literature,  pedagogy,  sociology, 
ethics,  Bible  literature  and  religion. 

Any  one  looking  through  the  handsome  prospectus  for 
1895  will  at  once  be  struck  with  the  high  character  of 
the  School.  We  notice  among  the  lecturers  and  teachers 
for  that  year  such  Lutheran  names  as  Dr.  A.  T.  Clay, 
the  well-known  archaeologist ;  Dr.  Elson,  author  of  sev- 
eral popular  books  on  history;  Dr.  Ettinger  of  Muhlen- 
berg College  who  acted  as  dean  of  the  faculty;  Dr. 
Richards  of  the  same  institution  whose  "post-prandial 
talks"  proved  to  be  a  most  popular  feature;  Professor 
Marks  of  Allentown,  who  acted  as  musical  director; 
George  Hayes,  the  chemist ;  and  Rev.  John  Richards, 
son  of  the  well-known  Professor  Dr.  Richards.   Drs.  Mc- 


AS    EDUCATOR  65 

Knight  and  Dunbar  were  members  of  the  Board.  In 
the  following  year  Dr.  Weidner  of  Chicago  also  lectured. 
This  Chautauqua  experience  proved  to  be  but  the 
unfolding  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  genius  as  a  Christian  edu- 
cator. The  germs  of  it  lay  in  his  innate  passion  for  the 
spread  of  useful  knowledge  when  he  organized  a  Liter- 
ary Circle  in  Lebanon  in  his  early  pastorate.  He  divided 
this  Circle  into  groups  for  the  study  of  special  subjects. 
Later  came  the  University  Extension  courses  which  he 
introduced  with  the  help  and  encouragement  of  Pro- 
fessor Penniman  of  his  Alma  Mater.  The  impulse  that 
drove  him  into  the  educational  sphere  was  his  ambition 
to  affix  the  Christian  stamp  to  all  knowledge  and  surround 
it  with  a  Christian  atmosphere.  When  at  the  Seminary, 
he  writes  to  his  father: 

"Did  you  read  that  article  in  the  American,  concerning  Free 
Schools?  Prof.  Thompson  evidently  thinks  our  public  school 
system  is  after  all  not  such  a  glorious  institution.  There  is 
no  attempt  at  moulding  a  character,  at  training  the  will,  sweet- 
ening the  disposition,  ennobling  the  affections.  'The  whole  course 
of  study  is  narrowed  to  a  dry  intellectualism,  and  the  only  am- 
bition is  to  turn  out  a  set  of  smart,  alert  graduates,  who  have 
had  no  moral  benefit  from  their  school  studies.'  They  are  en- 
veloped by  a  perfumed  atmosphere,  are  not  taught  to  see  things 
in  life  as  they  really  are,  and  are  not  even  taught  to  think  or 
exercise  judgment.  A  child's  education  ought  to  teach  it  how  to 
live — even  if  it  cannot  rattle  off  the  distinctions  between  the 
Camel  id^e  and  Camelopardse,  or  the  various  bones  that  compose 
the  human  skeleton.  I  do  not  undervalue  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  Nature;  but  I  do  not  believe  it  will  do  a  child  much  good — it 
is  useless  until  one  has  a  knowledge  of  one's  self  and  of  God. 
And  worst  of  all,  most  of  the  knowledge  they  get  is  not  true 
knowledge.  'They  deceive  themselves  and  the  truth  is  not  in 
them.'  'They  possess  the  form  of  knowledge,  but  deny  the  power 
thereof.' " 
F 


CHAPTER  VIII 
As  Historian 

NO  TRAITOR  TO  HIS  BLOOD 

"People  who  will  take  no  pride  in  the  noble  achievements  of 
remote  ancestors,  will  never  achieve  anything  worthy  to  be  re- 
membered with  pride  by  remote  descendants." — Macaulay. 

HE  who  is  willing  to  forget  the  rock  whence  he  was 
hewn  is  a  traitor  to  his  blood.     Dr.  Schmauk 
has  given  abundant  evidence  in  his  career  that 
he  was  no  such  traitor. 

In  an  address  to  Lebanon  High  School  graduates, 
he  says : 

"We,  the  successive  generations  of 
Lebanon's  youth,  who  have  passed  through 
its  schools,  are  sprung  from  a  singular 
stock.  We  are  all  of  one  race,  for  even 
our  Scotch  townsmen  and  those  in  whose 
veins  courses  the  fresh  blood  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  are 
Pennsylvania-Germans,  as  one  of  their  esteemed  repre- 
sentatives pointed  out  to  the  Lebanon  County  Historical 
Society. 

"  'The  silent  race' — 'the  dumb  Dutch' — unjustly  reviled 
by  Francis  Parkman,  John  Fiske,  and  the  author  of  Tillie 
the  Mennonite  Maid,  Helen  Riemensschneider  Martin, 
herself  out  of  the  heart  of  Lancaster  county,  and  will- 
ing to  sell  her  birthright  for  a  whiff  of  fame;  the  race 
of  whom  the  historian  Bancroft  more  justly  declares, 
'Neither  they  nor  their  descendants  have  laid  claim  to 
what  is  due  them.' 


AS    HISTORIAN  67 

"The  man  who  is  ashamed  of  his  own  town,  and  with- 
holds from  his  own  nourishing  mother  her  meed  of  well- 
earned  praise,  is  either  a  recreant  or  a  vagabond." 

None  could  have  been  more  conscious  of  the  defects 
and  shortcomings,  from  a  cultural  point  of  view,  of  many 
Pennsylvania  Germans  than  was  he.  He  knew  wherein 
they  lacked,  and  his  endeavor  to  inspire  in  them  a  thirst 
for  knowledge  and  to  open  to  them  a  larger  world  than 
the  little  self -centered  one  in  which  many  were  content 
to  live,  is  directly  responsible  for  his  activity  as  an  edu- 
cator among  them.  He  recognized  the  sturdy  elements 
of  character  that  made  them  staunch  and  true  and  reli- 
able, and  knew  that  when  their  dormant  energies  were 
once  awakened,  they  would  stand  second  to  no  racial 
element  in  this  country  in  intelligence  and  progressive- 
ness.  The  history  of  the  Revolution  proves  it.  When 
at  the  Seminary,  he  complained  to  his  father  that  many 
Lutherans  of  German  descent  "who  think,  act  and  live 
in  a  manner  quite  different  from  the  grand  old  Germans 
of  the  sixteenth  century,"  fail  "to  express  their  true 
aesthetical  spirit  and  genius"  in  a  way  that  commends 
itself  to  the  best  Americans. 

He  lamented  a  tendency,  on  the  other  hand,  of  many 
who,  instead  of  seeking  to  develop  a  culture  among  them 
out  of  the  roots  of  what  was  best  in  their  distinctive 
character,  assumed  an  air  of  superiority  over  their  very 
kith  and  kin,  at  times,  and  sought  to  conceal  their  racial 
origin.  He  regarded  such  as  traitors  to  their  blood — moral 
weaklings  who  ape  a  sort  of  Yankee  imported  culture  and 
are  satisfied  chiefly  with  its  shams  and  pretensions.  He 
was  not  that  type  of  Pennsylvania  German.  He  saw 
the  latent  possibilities  in  them,  identified  himself  with 
them,  and  like  a  true  son  of  a  sturdy  race,  he  took  a 


68  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

most  prominent  part  in  putting  the  good  Pennsylvania 
German  iron  ore  in  their  character,  that  lay  crude  and 
unformed  in  its  raw  state,  through  a  Christian  cultural 
process  and  turning  it  into  steel. 

It  was  not  an  accident,  therefore,  that  in  the  same  year 
when,  as  the  natural  outcome  of  his  literary-circle  and 
university-extension  activities,  the  Chautauqua  idea  was 
being  worked  out  and  was  taking  form,  he  should  have 
become  one  of  the  most  promient  factors  in  the  organi- 
zation of  a  Society  that  should  awaken,  not  a  pride  of 
ancestry  merely  but  a  cultural  consciousness  born  of 
what  was  truest  and  best  in  the  Pennsylvania  German 
character.  While  he  was  not  the  originator  of  the  idea, 
he  became  its  leading  light  and  spirit  as  events  proved. 
His  connection  with  that  Society  had  much  to  do  to  give 
him  that  wonderful  familiarity  with  Pennsylvania,  and 
even  national,  history  which  resulted  in  the  issuing  of  his 
"History  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsylvania." 
This  monumental  work,  involving  a  colossal  amount  of 
research,  appeared  in  1903 ;  but  in  its  initial  stages,  it  in 
part  appeared  as  a  publication  of  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
man Society  in  1901,  and  in  part  also  in  his  "Early 
Churches  of  the  Lebanon  Valley"  which  appeared  a  year 
later — both  showing  the  preliminary  preparation  lor  the 
most  thorough  treatment  of  this  subject  extant.  It  is 
almost  the  last  word  that  remained  to  be  said  of  the 
pioneer  history  of  Lutheranism  in  this  country.  The 
inspiration  and  incentive  for  its  preparation  are  to  be 
traced  to  his  connection  with  this  Society.  It  is  meet, 
therefore,  that  something  should  be  said  about  the  origin 
of  that  Society  and  of  the  prominent  part  he  played 
in  its  history  and  achievements. 

When  on  December    17,   1890,  the  public  schools  of 


AS    HISTORIAN  69 

Lebanon  and  Reading  celebrated  the  eighty-third  birthday 
of  the  poet  Whittier,  there  appeared,  the  next  day,  in  the 
Lebanon  Daily  Report,  Lee  L.  Grumbine,  Esq.,  editor, 
the  following  comment : 

"We   love   Whittier for    his    justice    to   the    Pennsylvania 

Germans.  People  v\^ho  sneer  at  the  Pennsylvania  Germans  do 
not  know  that  a  society  of  Pennsylvania  Dutch  'Friends'  or  Dunk- 
ards  was  the  first  religious  body  in  America  to  express  their 
outraged  feelings  and  indignation  in  words  of  stem  denunciation 
of  that  national  infamy — African  slavery.  When  ignorance  and 
prejudice  are  dead  and  truth  gets  a  hearing,  it  will  he  esteemed 
an   honor   to  be   called   the   son   of   a    Pennsylvania    Dutchman." 

When  three  days  later,  December  31st,  "Forefathers' 
Day,"  in  memory  of  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers, 
was  celebrated  in  certain  parts  of  the  country,  there  ap- 
peared an  editorial  in  the  Report  on  December  26th,  part 
of  which  reads  thus : 

"The  Pennsylvania  Dutchman  not  only  occupies  one-half  of 
the  State,  but  his  descendants  have  migrated  north,  east,  south, 
and  west,  so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  go  to  any  state 
or  territory  in  the  Union  without  finding  a  son  of  a  Pennsyl- 
vania Dutchman.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  history  scarcely 
mentions  this  important  factor  of  the  population  of  our  country. 
If  we  read  the  history  of  our  land,  we  hardly  learn  that  a  Ger- 
man immigration  to  America  and  the  foundation  of  a  German 
settlement  in  Pennsylvania  ever  took  place.  There  may  be  a 
reason  for  this,  but  there  can  be  no  excuse." 

A  day  later,  he  "urges  the  organization  of  a  society  of 
the  descendants  of  the  German  Palatines"  as   follows : 

"We  pointed  out  yesterday  the  inaccuracy  and  the  injustice  of 
the  historian  in  not  giving  credit  in  the  history  of  national  and 
state  development  to  so  important  a  factor  as  the  Pennsylvania 
German.  It  is  our  purpose,  if  possible,  to  call  public  attention 
to  this  studied  omission,  and  to  arouse  an  interest  in  the  public 
mind  that  will   command  our  rightful   place   in  history.    .    .    We 


70  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

would  urge  the  need  of  fostering  a  feeling  of  an  ancestral  pride 
and  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  blood  of  the  German-born  pil- 
grims from  whom  so  many  of  our  people  have  descended.  How? 
By  organizing  societies — general  and  local — for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  out  and  preserving  facts  of  historical  interest  and  of 
emphasizing  the  achievements  of  our  forefathers  and  their  sons; 
by  holding  great  public  celebrations  to  rehearse  the  story  of 
their  sorrows,  their  sufiferings,  their  sacrifices,  and  their  success, 
in  speech  and  song,  in  poetry  and  history." 

Later,  on  January  21,  1891,  he  renews  the  agitation 
for  the  organization  of  the  sons  of  the  Pennsylvania  Ger- 
mans. The  Philadelphia  Inquirer  caught  up  the  idea  with 
favor;  then  on  January  31st  the  Lancaster  New  Era, 
F.  R.  Diffenderfer,  Litt.D.,  editor,  "seconds  the  motion ;" 
then  the  Bethlehem  Times  "falls  in  line"  and  calls  for  a 
"Pennsylvania  German  Society."  Then  appears  an  en- 
thusiastic article  in  the  Harrisburg  Telegraph  by  the  State 
Librarian,  Dr.  W.  H.  Egle  advocating  speedy  organi- 
zation. 

Next  we  read  of  a  meeting  of  Dr.  Diffenderfer,  Dr. 
Egle,  Dr.  Stahr  of  Franklin  and  Marshall  College,  Dr. 
Buehrle,  superintendent  of  the  PubHc  Schools  of  Lan- 
caster, Dr.  Hark  of  the  Moravian  Church  and  Dr.  Lyte 
of  the  Millersvilie  State  Normal  School  in  the  editorial 
rooms  of  the  New  Era  on  February  14,  1891,  and  the 
following  letter  reaches  the  younger  Schmauk : 

Lancaster,  Pa.,  February  14,  1891. 
"The  Rev.  Theo.   Schmauk: — 

"My  Dear   Sir  : — 

"Dr.  W.  H.  Egle,  of  Harrisburg,  State  Librarian,  President 
John  F.  Stahr,  D.D.,  of  Franklin  and  Marshall  G>llege,  Prof. 
E.  O.  Lyte,  of  Millersvilie  State  Normal  School,  and  two  or 
three  others,  came  together  this  afternoon,  and  after  consul- 
tation decided  to  invite  a  few  representatives  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania   German    element    in    the    several    counties    of    our    State, 


AS    HISTORIAN  71 

in  which  that  element  is  prevalent,  to  attend  a  preliminary 
meeting  at  36  West  Orange  Street,  Lancaster,  on  Thursday, 
February  26,  1891,  at  10  A.  M.,  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
the  advisability,  ways  and  means  of  organizing  a  'Pennsyl- 
vania  German   Historical    Society' You   are   therefore   most 

earnestly    invited    to    attend:    this    preliminary    meeting It    is 

very  important  that  your  county  should  be  represented  among 
the  organizers  of  this  movement.  I  sincerely  hope  you  will 
make  it  possible  to  be  with  us. 

"Yours, 
"Very   sincerely, 

"J.    Max   Hark." 

At  this  meeting,  suggestions  were  made  that  the  name 
of  the  proposed  organization  be  the  "Pennsylvania  Dutch 
Society"  and  that  the  proceedings  be  conducted  in  the 
Pennsylvania  German  dialect.  Here  is  where  young 
Schmauk  stepped  to  the  fore,  and  in  forceful  and  con- 
vincing manner,  assisted  by  Dr.  Hark  and  others,  stood 
for  the  name  "Pennsylvania  German"  and  for  the  more 
scholarly  and  historical  ideal  of  the  best  minds,  that  "the 
Society  should  represent  that  which  is  loftiest  in  the 
character  and  achievement  of  the  fathers  rather  than 
that  which  was  merely  odd  and  quaint."  That  idea  pre- 
vailed. 

At  that  meeting,  it  was  decided  to  issue  a  call  for  the 
organization  of  such  a  Society  on  April  15th,  1891,  in 
the  Court  House  at  Lancaster,  and  there  was  born  what 
is  known  as  "The  Pennsylvania  German  Society."  The 
call,  with  Schmauk  as  chairman  to  give  it  its  final  form, 
reads  in  part  as  follows : 

"It  is  eminently  proper  that  the  descendants  of  these  Ger- 
man-Swiss people  should  associate  themselves  in  memory  of 
those  who  'made  the  wilderness  blossom  as  the  rose,'  to  show 
to  the  offspring  of  other  nationalities  that  they  are  not  behind 
them  in  any   of   the   attributes   which   go  to   make  up   the  best 


12  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

citizens  of  the  best  State  in  the  best  Government  of  the  world. 
In  the  art  of  printing,  in  the  realm  of  science  and  letters,  in 
religious  fervor,  in  pure  statesmanship,  in  war  and  in  peace, 
the  Pennsylvania-German-Swiss  element  has  equalled  any  other 
race. 

"It  has  long  been  everywhere  recognized  by  the  descendants 
of  the  early  American  colonists  as  a  matter  of  great  importance 
to  effect  organizations  of  the  character  we  propose,  for  the 
purpose  of  searching  out  and  preserving  all  ancestral  records; 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  their  forefathers  into  such  recog- 
nition in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  their  own 
children,  as  they  deserve;  for  the  purpose  of  developing  the 
friendly  and  fraternal  spirit  that  should  exist  between  those 
in  whose  veins  the  same  blood  flows ;  for  the  purpose  of  lifting 
history,  now  unnoticed  or  unknown,  into  honor ;  and,  very  par- 
ticularly, for  the  purpose  of  preserving  to  posterity  the  old 
public  records,  landmarks  and  memorials,  which  in  another 
generation  will  have  entirely  disappeared." 

It  would  take  us  too  far  afield  to  go  into  details  as 
to  the  work  of  this  historical  society ;  but  Dr.  Schmauk's 
connection  with  it  and  his  leadership  in  it,  especially  when 
crises  arose  that  threatened  to  impair  its  usefulness, 
proved  to  be  of  such  value  both  to  himself  and  to  the 
Society  that  some  knowledge  of  the  origin  and  aims  of 
this  organization  seems  necessary  in  order  to  furnish  a 
proper  perspective  on  which  to  set  in  relief  his  influence 
and  usefulness  during  this  period.  He  ever  strove  to  keep 
the  Society  true  to  its  professed  aims  and  ideals,  and 
naturally  took  less  interest  in  the  social  features  at  the 
annual  banquets. 

The  seriousness  with  which  he  entered  into  this  work 
is  illustrated  by  an  incident  that  occurred  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Society  in  Lebanon  on  October  12th,  1892.  When 
the  election  of  members  to  the  Executive  Committee  was 
proceeding,   there   was   much   conversation    indulged   in 


AS    HISTORIAN  73 

and  little  attention  paid  to  what  was  going  on.  He  hap- 
pened to  be  elected  a  member  of  that  Committee  but  was 
so  dissatisfied  with  the  apparent  lack  of  interest  taken  in 
the  election  that  he  declined  to  accept  the  office.  This 
necessitated  a  second  election  under  a  more  orderly  and 
serious  mode  of  procedure,  and  he  then  accepted.  He 
at  once  became  a  leading  factor  in  determining  the  policy 
and  activity  of  the  Society,  and  in  1895,  upon  the  resig- 
nation of  Dr.  Hark,  was  elected  chairman  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee.  He  served  in  this  capacity  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death,  save  in  the  year  1896  when  he  was 
elected  President  of  the  Society.  He  proved  to  be  the 
man  at  the  helm,  master  of  all  the  details  of  the  Society's 
workings,  keeping  it  true  to  its  course. 

Dr.  Schmauk  always  inspired  confidence  by  his  won- 
derful mastery  of  details  and  his  wide  range  of  knowl- 
edge when  presiding  at  the  meetings  of  the  Executive 
Committee.  When  by  means  of  a  proposed  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  an  attempt  was  made  to  displace  use- 
ful members  of  the  Committee  to  gratify  the  personal 
ambitions  of  others,  he  stood  like  a  rock  against  it  and 
in  a  powerful  and  convincing  speech  maintained  that 
the  amendment  stood  not  for  "a.  judicious  but  a  forcible 
introduction  of  new  blood;"  that  "not  freshness  but  tried 
efficiency"  should  be  the  requirement  demanded;  that 
there  "should  be  as  little  fluctuation  as  possible  where 
faithful  service  is  being  rendered.  Continuity  of  service 
is  what  is  wanted." 

A  letter  we  received  from  a  lay  member  of  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence,  after 
he  had  learned  of  his  death,  while  naturally  a  little 
excessive  in  its  admiration,  shows  the  great  confidence 
that  was  reposed  in  his  leadership.     It  reads  in  part : 


74 


THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 


"In  my  work  as  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Pennsylvania  German  Society,  I  learned  to  know 
and  admire  Dr.  Schmauk,  and  his  death  means  to  me  a 
distinct  personal  loss.  To  the  Church  it  is  nothing  less 
than  the  falling  of  a  mighty  pillar.  I  always  thought 
he  was  too  big  even  for  the  Church.  The  chair  of  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  would  not  have  been  too  big 
a  place  for  him  and  he  could  have  worthily  represented 
his  country  as  Ambassador  to  England  or  Germany." 
We  have  heard  other  laymen  of  intelligence  talk  after 
this  fashion,  though  it  should  be  evident  that  no  man  is 
ever  half  big  enough  for  the  Church. 

THE  LEBANON  COUNTY  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 

When  the  work  of  the 
Pennsylvania  German  So- 
ciety was  well  under  way, 
it  was  inevitable  that  a  local 
historical  society  should 
come  into  existence,  and 
under  the  inspiration  and 
leadership  of  the  younger 
Schmauk,  who  had  already 
become  familiar  with  every 
inch  of  historic  ground  in 
and  around  Lebanon,  there  was  organized  on  Janu- 
ary 14th,  1898,  the  "Lebanon  County  Historical 
Society."  Its  aims  and  objects  are  set  forth  in  great 
detail  in  its  constitution.  Among  the  Lutheran  clerical 
members  besides  Dr.  Schmauk  that  proved  to  be  especially 
active  were  the  Revs.  F.  J.  F.  Schantz  and  P.  C.  Croll. 

There  was  no  lack  of  effort  to  show  forth  the  merits 
of  Lebanon  County  and  the  part  its  citizens  played  in 
the  war  of  the  Revolution.    He  who  did  so  much  to  keep 


AS    HISTORIAN  75 

this  Society  interested  and  active,  and  to  create  a  sense 
of  pride  in  Lebanon  County  history,  proclaims  its  merits 
in  words  Hi<e  these : 

"The  agricultural  skill  of  the  county  has  all  the  German  in- 
dustry Pennsylvanians  can  give  it,  and  there  is  no  higher  en- 
comium. Nowhere  else  in  the  United  States  are  the  farms  in  such 
condition.  Barns  almost  like  castles  in  their  magnitude,  and  mag- 
nificent in  their  beauty  and  adornment,  and  outbuildings  all  show 
the  same  disregard  of  expense,  and  on  many  the  barn  alone  will 
far  exceed,  in  expense  and  attractions,  the  entire  establishment 
of  a  well-to-do  New  England  or  New  York  farmer. 

"At  G)rnwall  is  found  what  used  to  be  known  as  the  most  re- 
markable and  valuable  body  of  iron  ore  in  the  world.  It  has  been 
constantly  working  for  a  period  antedating  the  Revolution.  In 
the  days  of  1776  cannon  and  ammunitions  of  war  were  furnished 
the  colonists  by  the  proprietors  of  Cornwall. 

"Limestone  finest  in  the  world  for  the  fluxing  of  iron  and  for 
making  of  cement. 

"In  the  War  of  Independence  many  of  the  citizens  of  Lebanon 
County  were  in  the  ranks  of  the  patriot  army.  Immense  supplies 
were  sent  from  this  locality  for  the  brave  men  at  Valley  Forge 
and  White  Marsh. 

"After  the  Battle  of  Trenton  a  large  number  of  Hessians  were 
confined  in  Salem  Lutheran  Church  here  and  in  the  Moravian 
Church  at  Heibron.  Colonel  Greenawald,  Colonel  Philip  DeHaas, 
and  Philipp  Marsteller  were  the  great  military  men  of  the  day. 
The  latter  served  as  a  commissary  of  purchases  almost  during  the 
entire  war." 

The  thoroughness  with  which  he  entered  into  the  work 
of  the  Society,  and  the  keen  insight  and  historic  instinct 
with  which  he  was  endowed,  were  clearly  manifested 
when  the  adopting  of  a  seal  was  under  discussion,  A 
sketch  had  been  submitted  with  the  Goddess  of  History 
as  the  central  figure.  Of  this  he  says:  "It  is  an  ele- 
gant, artistic  and  very  happy  concq>tion.  The  Goddess 
looks  back  into  all  the  noble  deeds  of  the  past  and  pro- 


76  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

claims  their  praises  in  trumpet  tones  to  the  present  gen- 
eration." Then  follow  nine  reasons  why  it  is  not  suit- 
able. They  reveal  fine  taste  and  an  artistic  sense  of  the 
divine  fitness  of  things  that  make  them  worthy  of 
publication. 

"1.  Not  sufficently  patriotic,  but  a  foreign  conception.  There 
is  nothing  of  the  Greek  spirit  of  learning  in  our  history  or  tra- 
dition. Pennsylvania  German  Lebanon  County  runs  back  else- 
where in  its  traditions  and  is  too  plain  and  matter  of  fact  for 
the  elegance,  not  to  say  the  voluptuousness,  of  Greek  art. 

"2.  Not  sufficently  democratic,  but  artistocratic.  The  classical 
conception  of  the  Goddess  is  for  college  graduates,  far  away  from 
the  atmosphere  of  common  people,  and  is  the  very  reverse  of  the 
atmosphere  and  surroundings  in  which  Lebanon  County  Was 
cradled. 

"3.  An  engrafting  of  heathen  mythology  upon  the  plain  piety 
of  our  forefathers.  I  do  not  advocate  the  typifying  of  religion  in 
our  seal,  but  if  it  is  to  be  typified,  the  religion  of  the  old  Bible 
and  Prayer  Books  which  gave  our  fathers  courage  and  strength  in 
their  journeys  across  the  seas  and  through  the  wilderness  should 
be  the  one  symbolized. 

"4.  Clio,  the  Muse  of  History,  was  represented  with  a  roll  or 
wax  tablets  in  one  hand,  but  also  with  trumpets  in  the  other  and 
with  a  wreath  of  laurel  around  her  brow. 

"5.  She  mas  upon  the  mountains,  and  not  in  the  valley.  The 
mountains  were  either  her  original  home  on  snow-capped  Mt. 
Olympus  (the  seal  is  not  snow-capped),  or  on  the  temple-crowned 
grove  of  Mt.  Helicon.  She  would  be  lost  and  starved  upon  this 
bare  mount. 

"6.  The  connection  in  thought  between  Mt.  Lebanon,  with  its 
ever  green  cedars,  and  our  valley  after  which  it  was  named,  is  a 
very  beautiful  one,  if  there  were  only  some  point  in  actual  re- 
ality to  which  it  corresponded.  But  we  are  a  valley,  mountain- 
fringed,  and  not  a  mountain;  and  our  people  and  deeds  are  those 
of  the  valley  and  not  those  of  the  mountaineer. 

"7.  The  combination  of  the  Greek  figure  and  the  Mountain  of 
Lebanon  is  a  mixed  figure  or  hybrid,  which  might  provoke  some 
criticism,  if  not  amusement,  if  our  Society  ever  came  under  hostile 


AS    HISTORIAN  11 

fire.  To  transfer  a  Hebrew  prophet  to  Greek  soil,  as  Paul  went  to 
Athens,  would  perhaps  be  legitimate;  but  to  transfer  a  Greek 
Muse  to  the  soil  of  the  Old  Testament  is  unusual,  and  without 
some  underlying  cause,  would  be  difficult  to  explain. 

"8.  At  most,  the  whole  of  the  historical  substance  repre- 
sented by  a  seal  such  as  this  would  be  a  combination  of  the  gen- 
eral subject  History  with  the  name  Lebanon.  The  specific  es- 
sence, the  substance  as  contrasted  with  the  form  would  be  missed; 
and  our  Society  would  become  identified  more  with  those  gen- 
eral Historical  Societies  which  are  found  in  colleges  and  towns, 
and  which  discuss  historical  questions  of  all  countries  and  of 
all  ages  under  the  name  'Qionian.' 

"9.  The  seal  has  the  two  merits  of  attractiveness  and  sim- 
plicity; but  it  lacks  in  manliness  on  the  human  side,  and  in  the 
sunny  cheer  of  the  valley  on  the  side  of  nature. 

"10.  I  tried  to  work  myself  into  the  conception  of  the  seal, 
but  every  time  the  picture  of  our  sturdy,  sensible,  pious,  matter- 
of-fact  forefathers,  who  were  transforming  the  earth,  and  not 
romancing  in  the  regions  of  art,  came  up  before  my  mind.  I  was 
not  satisfied,  but  at  sea,  until,  getting  at  the  matter  in  a  logical 
and  heraldic  way,  I  began  investigating  the  executive  seals  of 
Lebanon  County  and  of  the  State,  to  ascertain  whether  they 
would  afford  us  any  precedent. 

"The  original  seal  of  Pennsylvania,  used  in  the  provincial 
period,  had  as  its  chief  device  the  Penn  coat  of  arms  found  on 
the  seal  of  the  Pennsylvania  German  Society. 

"The  Pennsylvania  coat  of  arms  appeared  first  in  1777  printed 
on  an  issue  of  paper  money,  compose  mainly  of  a  shield. 

"In  1778  Caleb  Lowens  prepared  a  design  which  served  as  the 
basis  of  all  subsequent  modifications. 

"The  first  engraved  coat  of  arms  in  1777  is  now  the  seal  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Society  of  New  York,  and  is,  in  my  judgment,  very 
beautiful. 

"I  found  our  County  using  the  State  seal  and  the  County  name 
in  all  its  executive  departments. 

"Here  then  was  the  natural,  historical  and  heraldic  base,  from 
which  to  proceed  to  express  Lebanon  County  and  that  for  which 
we  stand  in  Lebanon  County." 


78  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

There  was  no  getting  away  from  the  force  of  this 
presentation,  and  the  above  seal,  with  the  Pennsylvania 
coat  of  arms  and  the  American  eagle  on  top  of  the  volume 
of  history  to  be  written,  with  Lebanon  County's  iron 
industry  represented  on  one  side  of  the  page  and  its  farm- 
ing industry  on  the  other,  while  less  classical  but  more 
true  to  nature  and  fact  than  the  one  submitted,  became 
the  insignia  of  the  Society. 


CHAPTER  IX 
Editor  and  Sunday  School  Leader 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  America  has  an  open  door  before  it. 
The  public  schools  in  many  places  mil  not  receive  children  under 
six  years  of  age;  and  in  many  other  places  are  very  glad  if 
children  are  educated  privately  up  to  the  age  of  seven  years.  This 
affords  the  Church  her  great  opportunity  for  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  a  sound  Christian  and  evangelical  faith  in  the  hearts 
of  the  little  ones. — Christian  Kindergarten. 

WHEN  in  the  fall  of  1895,  the  General  Council 
met  at  Easton,  Pa.,  four  new  responsibilities 
devolved  upon  him.  His  well-known  interest 
in  Sunday  School  work  and  his  intelligent  grasp  of  its 
needs  and  problems  naturally  inclined  the  Council  to 
look  to  him  as  leader  in  this  important  field,  and  he 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Sunday  School  Committee. 
As  the  development  of  this  work  proved  to  be  of  great 
importance  in  the  years  that  followed,  more  will  be  said 
later. 

Another  task  of  great  importance  was  assigned  to  him 
by  the  Alumni  Association  when  he  was  made  editor 
of  The  Lutheran  Church  Reviezv,  with  the  faculty  of 
the  Philadelphia  Seminary  as  his  associates.  This  started 
him  more  fully  than  ever  on  the  way  of  grappling  with 
theological  and  other  questions  of  deep  concern  to  the 
Church.  For  more  than  twenty- four  years  he  kept 
fully  abreast  of  the  religious  literature  of  the  day  and 
constantly  aimed  to  touch  upon  a  great  variety  of  sub- 
jects of  theological  and  practical  interest. 


80  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

He  started  on  his  career  as  editor,  by  at  once  assign- 
ing tasks  to  a  large  number  of  writers.  He  naturally 
asked  Dr.  Krotel  for  some  article  on  a  subject  of  his 
own  choosing.  The  following  is  the  latter's  character- 
istic reply:  "What  shall  I  write?  HI  were  like  you, 
and  could  play  on  a  harp  of  a  thousand  strings,  or  had 
an  organ  like  your  own,  with  three  manuals  and  I  know 
not  how  many  stops,  I  would  not  be  at  a  loss." 

In  the  four  issues  of  1896,  there  appear  symposiums 
on  "Education,"  on  "The  Lutheran  Church's  Relation 
to  the  Denominations,"  on  "Prevalent  Errors  in  the 
Pulpit,"  and,  as  was  to  be  expected,  on  "The  Sunday 
School."  His  "Editorial  Points  of  View,"  which  ap- 
peared in  every  issue  for  some  years,  proved  to  be  es- 
pecially stimulating  and  interesting  and  were  the  chief 
attraction  for  most  of  the  readers  of  the  Review.  They 
could  always  be  counted  on  to  pay  their  respects  to  the 
liberal  theology  of  the  day — and  to  good  account.  When 
in  1897,  the  Church's  mind  reverted  to  the  birth  of 
Melanchthon  four  hundred  years  ago,  one  was  not  sur- 
prised to  be  treated  with  a  symposium  on  "Melanchthon 
and  the  Church  Fathers."  When  Hasting's  Bible  Dic- 
tionary appeared  in  1901,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  Dr. 
Schmauk  should  expose  its  rationalism  and  condemn 
the  choice  of  scholars  of  the  liberal  school  by  its  editors, 
to  deal  with  vital  subjects,  while  they  excluded  writers 
of  conservative  tendencies.  All  through  the  following 
years,  the  reader  was  sure  to  have  surprises  sprung 
upon  him  by  the  introduction  of  some  new  feature.  In 
the  January  issue  of  1902,  for  instance,  there  appeared 
a  most  interesting  "Editorial  Survey  of  the  Year  1901." 
Similar  surveys  appeared  for  the  next  three  years, 
and  much  regret  was  expressed  when  the  editor  failed 


'A  Face  Familiar  to  Children" 


EDITOR  AND   SUNDAY   SCHOOL   LEADER         81 

to  continue  to  interpret  leading  events  in  like  fashion 
in  the  years  that  followed. 

When  in  1903  he  was  elected  President  of  the  General 
Council,  as  Dr.  Jacobs  correctly  says,  "We  can  trace  a 
difference  between  the  policy  pursued  when  the  respon- 
sibility for  his  utterances  was  limited  chiefly  by  his  in- 
dividual obligations  and  that  which  guided  him  from 
1903."  "He  writes  from  that  time  more  with  the  con- 
sciousness and  authority  of  official  position,  and  that 
the  Journal  which  he  edits  is  regarded  as  an  organ  of 
the  body  over  which  he  presides." 

A  third  important  place  he  was  asked  to  fill  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Council  in  1895  was  that  of  membership 
in  the  Church  Book  Committee,  which  later  also  made 
him  a  member  of  the  Joint  Committee  w^hich  produced 
the  "Common  Service  Book  and  Hymnal."  In  this 
sphere,  he  proved  to  be  deeply  interested  and  active. 
He  kept  in  touch  with  the  progress  of  the  work  down 
to  its  minutest  details,  though  the  burden  of  the  work 
was  placed  upon  other  shoulders. 

As  it  was  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  H.  E.  Jacobs  that 
he  was  appointed  a  member,  and  as  both  were  closely 
associated  together  from  that  time  on  to  the  day  of  his 
death,  we  have  asked  Dr.  Jacobs  to  furnish  us  with  an 
estimate  of  the  services  he  rendered.    It  is  as  follows : 

Notwithstanding  his  numerous  other  engagements,  his  attend- 
ance at  the  meetings  was  very  regular.  Making  no  claim  to 
scholarship  in  Liturgies  or  Hymnology,  and  pleading  his  inability 
to  give  more  attention  to  details  than  at  the  sessions  of  the  com- 
mittee, he  did  no  constructive  work ;  but  was  an  invaluable  critic 
and  adviser,  where  others  took  the  initiative.  To  such  criticism 
he  brought  strong,  positive  and  clear  convictions  on  the  doctrines 
involved,  and  the  constant  demand  for  their  expression  in  precise 
and  vigorous  English. 

While  not  indifferent  to  the  value  of  historical  precedents,  he 
G 


82  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

claimed  that  all  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel  must  be  exercised  in 
adapting  what  is  rooted  in  the  past  to  present  issues.  The  accu- 
mulation of  authorities  weighed  little,  except  as  it  was  fruitful 
in  suggestions  that  could  be  utilized.  The  consensus  of  the  pure 
Lutheran  liturgies  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  was  to  him  a  guide, 
but  not  a  matter  of  absolute  law.  It  was  no  unusual  thing  to 
hear  him  challenge  a  committee  which  submitted  a  formula,  ap- 
proved by  abundant  literary  support,  to  break  through  the  traces, 
and  to  do  for  today  what  Luther  and  his  associates  did  for  their 
day  and  land. 

While  the  effect  of  his  cooperation  has  left  its  trace  throughout 
every  part  of  the  book,  his  most  important  contribution  was  in 
the  scheme  for  the  arrangement  of  the  hymns,  where,  instead  of 
the  outline  of  Dogmatics  followed  in  the  most  of  our  previous 
books,  he  insisted  upon,  and  carried  after  a  very  stubborn  struggle, 
the  order  of  the  Church  Year,  as  exhibiting  the  Life  of  our 
Lord  as  reproduced  in  the  life  of  the  believer,  and  of  the  entire 
Church.  The  consequence  of  this  was  that  his  Eschatology  was 
anything  but  pessimistic.  To  him  it  meant  the  clearness  and  cer- 
tainty of  the  Christian's  faith  with  respect  to  his  future.  It  is 
life,  eternal  life  begun  in  regeneration,  pressing  through  death, 
resurrection,  judgment,  etc.,  to  its  consummation  in  its  complete 
glorification.  Hence  the  hymns  of  this  section  are  characterized 
by  few  of  the  minor  notes  that  are  heard  in  many  of  the  classical 
hymns  both  of  the  Mediaeval  and  the  Reformed  Church,  as  well 
as  in  some  of  Pietistic  Lutheranism. 

The  fourth  responsibility  with  which  he  was  en- 
trusted at  that  meeting  was  to  act  as  a  member  of  the 
"Committee  of  Ways  and  Means"  appointed  to  secure 
funds  and  make  possible  the  publication  of  an  official 
organ  of  the  General  Council,  of  which  Dr.  H.  E.  Jacobs 
was  elected  the  Editor-in-Chief  and  Rev.  George  W. 
Sandt  the  Managing  Editor.  He  at  once  became  the 
chief  adviser  of  the  latter,  who  was  charged  with  the 
duty  of  raising  a  guarantee  fund  of  $10,000,  and  was 
made  the  chief  promoter  of  the  new  enterprise.  When 
Dr.  Jacobs  came  out  in  the  columns  of  The  Workman 


EDITOR  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  LEADER         83 

as  being  unwilling  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  acting 
as  Editor-in-Chief,  Schmauk,  Jr.,  suggested  to  the  Man- 
aging Editor  the  advisability  of  gracefully  retiring  from 
the  project.  Upon  being  informed  by  the  latter  that  in 
resigning  as  pastor  of  St.  John's  Church,  Wilkes-Barre, 
to  take  effect  January  1,  1896,  he  had  "already  burned 
the  bridges  behind  him,"  the  former  promptly  changed 
front  and  with  the  entire  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  behind  him  determined  that  the  official  organ 
must  become  a  fact.  He  at  once  got  into  communication 
with  Dr.  Krotel  and,  upon  securing  his  consent  and  the 
endorsement  of  the  Committee,  the  Managing  Editor  was 
instructed  to  secure,  if  possible,  the  votes  of  the  Staff 
Correspondents  for  Dr.  Krotel's  election.  Thus  chiefly 
through  his  efforts  a  new  head  was  secured,  and  by  Octo- 
ber of  1896  the  official  organ  of  the  General  Council 
became  a  fact. 

The  Editor  of  the  Reviczv  became  not  only  the  Liter- 
ary Editor  of  The  Lutheran,  but  contributed  many 
articles,  from  time  to  time,  to  its  columns.  Upon  the 
death  of  Dr.  Krotel  in  1907,  Dr.  Schmauk,  then  president 
of  the  General  Council,  became,  at  the  request  of  the 
Managing  Editor,  who  was  made  Editor-in-Chief,  the 
latter's  staunchest  supporter  and  helper.  At  intervals, 
when  sickness  or  absence  made  it  necessary  for  the 
Editor  to  find  a  substitute,  Dr.  Schmauk,  in  spite  of 
his  multiplying  duties,  was  always  at  hand  to  give  the 
needed  assistance.  He  was  given  all  the  liberty  of  action 
he  might  desire  and  in  no  single  instance  did  he  abuse  it. 
He  was  invited  to  be  the  critic  of  The  Lutheran,  and  of 
this  privilege  he  took  the  fullest  advantage.  Long  letters 
at  times  reached  the  editorial  office,  revealing  a  wonder- 
fully keen  and  comprehensive   grasp   of   problems   and 


84  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

situations,  and  more  than  once  came  a  letter  with  elec- 
tric flashes  of  lightning  when  he  and  the  Editor  did  not 
happen  to  agree — and  the  latter  were  often  far  more 
interesting  than  the  former.  They  quite  frequently 
were  a  thermometer  to  indicate  that  either  grippe,  (his 
chronic  ailment,  often  induced  by  over-worry  rather 
than  by  over- work)  or  some  other  physical  disability 
was  knocking  at  his  door.  These  lightning  flashes,  and 
invariably  the  cooling  showers  that  followed  them,  are 
prized  today  as  the  finest  evidence  of  a  great  loving  heart 
in  travail  for  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the  Church  he 
so  dearly  loved  and  so  unselfishly  served, 

PIONEER  IN  GRADED  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  INSTRUCTION 

It  was  at  the  Easton  Convention  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil in  1895  that  Dr.  Schmauk  became  interested  in  and 
identified  with  the  work  of  providing  a  literature  for  the 
Sunday  Schools  of  the  Church. 

At  this  convention,  the  plans  formulated  in  1888  at 
Minneapolis,  in  which  the  previous  practice  of  the 
Church  in  the  observance  of  the  Church  Year  and  the 
recommendation  of  a  Graded  Course  of  instruction 
based  on  the  historic  principles  and  practices  of  the 
Church,  came  up  for  discussion. 

Dr.  Schmauk  had  been  a  close  student  of  child  psy- 
chology and  was  keenly  interested  in  the  children  of 
the  Church  and  their  proper  training.  He  took  an 
active  and  important  part  in  the  discussion,  and  mani- 
fested a  grasp  of  the  subject  and  an  interest  in  the  work 
which  insured  for  him  membership  in  the  committee. 
At  a  very  early  day  he  became  the  editor,  and  by  1899 
both  editor  and  chairman  of  the  Committee.  He  was 
thus  placed  in  a  position  which  resulted  in  his  thorough 
study  of  the  whole  problem  of  Religious  Education  in 


EDITOR  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  LEADER    85 

its  Relation  to  the  Child.  He  became  the  incarnation 
of  the  historic  and  fundamental  principles  of  religious 
education  and  from  the  day  of  his  entrance  upon  the 
work  to  the  last  moments  of  his  life,  the  subject  was 
upon  his  heart  and  mind  and  was  given  the  largest 
share  of  his  time,  thought,  and  energy. 

Within  the  first  biennium  the  Scripture  Lesson  Quar- 
terlies for  senior  classes,  following  a  strict  church  year 
plan,  were  developed  and  had  been  most  cordially  re- 
ceived by  the  Church.  A  general  plan  for  graded  text 
books  and  quarterlies  had  also  been  mapped  out.  This 
included  a  primary  apparatus  in  grades  with  large  pic- 
ture charts  for  the  upper  class  in  the  primary.  It  also 
took  into  consideration  the  catechism  as  an  essential  part 
of  instruction. 

That  the  editor  had  a  vision  for  the  future  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  at  this  early  stage  provision  was  not 
only  made  for  furnishing  the  literature  in  other  lan- 
guages, especially  German  and  Swedish,  but  also  with  a 
view  to  securing  a  common  and  purely  Lutheran  graded 
literature  for  the  entire  Lutheran  Church.  In  1897  con- 
ferences with  other  Lutheran  bodies  were  authori-zed  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  committee,  with  a  view  to 
substituting  a  purely  Lutheran  literature  for  other  sys- 
tems in  use  if  this  were  deemed  desirable. 

In  1899  Dr.  Schmauk  as  chairman  made  a  voluminous 
report.  In  this  report  we  see  the  evidence  of  how  with 
his  characteristic  thoroughness  he  was  going  to  the 
sources  and  to  the  bottom  of  things.  He  brings  out  the 
fact  that  the  General  Council  first  took  up  the  problem 
of  providing  Sunday  School  literature  officially  in  1869 
and  that  work  anticipatory  had  been  done  in  1868  or 
one  year  after  the  formation  of  the  Council.     The  ap- 


86  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

pearance  of  the  "International  Lessons"  in  1873,  which 
marked  an  epoch  in  Sunday  School  work,  proved  an 
incentive  to  the  committee  which  began  a  series  of 
"Church  Lesson  Leaves"  in  1877.  He  quotes  the  fol- 
lowing as  the  action  then  taken:  "All  our  Sunday 
Schools  ought  to  be  distinctively  Church  schools.  Our 
own  doctrines  ought  to  be  exclusively  taught  in  them. 
No  other  than  our  own  Sunday  School  books,  lesson 
leaves  and  papers  should  be  used  in  them." 

OPPOSES  THE  INTERNATIONAL  SYSTEM 

From  the  start  he  clearly  grasped  the  sound  idea, 
that  knowledge  of  the  Bible  should  be  formed  in  the 
mind  and  built  up  like  a  cathedral,  with  all  parts  prop- 
erly related  to  its  central  substance,  and  not  like  a 
shapeless  pile  of  stones  lacking  cohesion  and  unity.  He 
accordingly  felt  that  the  Church  Year  should  become 
the  framework  around  which  that  knowledge  should  be 
constructed.  He  naturally  opposed  the  International 
System  of  lessons,  which  sacrificed  the  Christo-centric 
principle  of  instruction  to  the  uniform  theory.  In  a 
letter  to  an  assistant  superintendent  of  a  Lutheran  Sun- 
day School  in  New  York  City,  who  desired  to  know  the 
"basic  differences  between  our  system  and  the  Inter- 
national," he  gives  the  following  illuminating  answer : 

1.  We  make  the  living  and  the  saving  Word  of  God  our  center, 
rather  than  teaching  the  Bible  as  a  book.  Hence  we  put  the 
Gospel  first.  We  study  the  New  Testament  in  that  part  of  the 
year  in  which  the  schools  are  full.  We  lay  stress  on  the  New 
Testament. 

The  International  system  deals  with  the  Bible  as  a  book,  rather 
than  with  God's  Word  that  is  within  it.  The  Blakesly  system 
emphasizes  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Epistles,  and  what 
to  our  mind  is  the  ecclesiastical  side  of  Christianity. 

2.  We   conform    our    teaching,    in   a    general    manner,    to    the 


EDITOR   AND   SUNDAY   SCHOOL   LEADER         87 

Church  Year,  and  to  its  festivals.  This  is  the  Lutheran  way. 
So  far  as  possible,  we  begin  the  study  of  the  life  of  Christ  with 
Advent  and  Christmas  and  we  continue  with  the  life  and  teachings 
of  Christ,  and  with  His  suffering,  death  and  resurrection  through 
the  seasons  devoted  to  a  commemoration  of  those  great  saving 
facts. 

The  International  system  does  not  recognize  that  the  Church 
Year  is  a  medium  for  the  Christian  living  over  again  the  life 
of  his  Lord,  and,  although  of  late  years  it  has  accommodated 
itself  to  popular  demand  by  giving  Christmas  lessons  on  Christ- 
mas and  Easter  lessons  on  Easter,  it  only  touches  the  outer  hem 
of  the  devout  life  of  a  churchly  Christian  in  so  doing. 

3.  The  two  great  elements  for  instructing  Christian  youth  are 
first  the  doctrine  of  the  Scripture,  which  we  have  in  Luther's 
Catechism,  and  the  examples  or  life  of  the  Scripture,  which  we 
have  in  Bible  history.  In  our  system  we  regulate  things  largely 
according  to  these  two  leading  points. 

4.  Our  system  believes  that  there  ought  to  be  a  regular  order 
of  progress,  with  a  definite  goal,  to  Sunday-school  work,  begin- 
ning with  the  simplest  and  most  concrete  truth  for  the  child  and 
advancing,  with  the  mental  and  spiritual  advance  of  the  child, 
to  that  which  is  more  mature. 

The  International  system  is  a  wilderness  of  Bible  verses,  be- 
ginning nowhere,  and  ending  nowhere.  It  is  treading  continu- 
ously through  the  wilderness.  The  Blakesly  system  has  an  order, 
and  makes  progress,  but  its  progress  is  in  a  circle,  recurring  every 
three  years,  and  not  progress  according  to  the  natural  unfolding 
of  the  child's  mind. 

5.  Our  fundamental  principle  is  a  gradation  of  matter  and 
an  adaptation  of  method  to  the  various  stages  of  the  developing 
child-mind.  We  believe  in  giving  milk  to  the  babes  and  meat  to 
the  strong. 

This  cannot  be  done  on  the  uniform  lesson  plan  of  the  Inter- 
national system.  Either  the  meat  or  the  milk  will  then  be  lack- 
ing. There  is  something  in  Scripture  for  every  age  and  condi- 
tion of  man.  We  take  the  story  material  that  is  suitable  for  the 
very  little  ones  and  present  it  to  them.  Then  comes  the  story 
material  for  the  older  ones.  Then  comes  the  history  which  is 
stories  woven  together. 

Then  comes  the  biography  which  is  an  analysis  of  character. 


88  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Then  comes  the  teaching  or  doctrines  of  Scripture.  Finally  there 
comes  an  outline  of  the  contents  of  each  book  of  Scripture,  so 
that  the  scholar  gets  an  idea  of  the  book  of  the  Bible  as  a  whole, 
and  from  the  point  of  view  from  which  its  writer  originally  in- 
tended it  to  be  read  and  used,  before  he  goes  into  a  detailed  study 
of  the  text. 

Our  system  was  begun  in  the  year  1895.  It  is  the  pioneer  of 
all  graded  systems,  though  no  pains  have  been  taken  to  announce 
it  outside  of  the  Lutheran  Church.  It  was  developed  after  an 
intimate  examination  of  the  International  system.  It  has  been 
perfected  more  and  more  every  year,  but  is  not  perfect  now,  nor 
will  it  ever  be  perfect.  Improvement  will  be  made  continuously, 
as  strength  and  resources  and  insight  accumulate. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF    THE    SYSTEM 

With  emphasis  laid  in  the  beginning  on  the  Senior 
and  the  Primary  work,  and  a  gradual  development  of 
the  Intermediate  Grade  Text  Books,  the  entire  graded 
apparatus  was  developed  as  a  comprehensive  whole, 
every  grade  and  the  special  lessons  in  the  various  grades 
all  being  part  of  a  general  and  comprehensive  plan  of 
presenting  the  whole  Bible  in  a  systematic  way  and 
graded  and  adapted  to  the  child  mind  in  its  normal  de- 
velopment. 

In  the  construction  of  the  Graded  System  Dr.  Schmauk 
drew  upon  his  extended  study  and  experience  and  suc- 
cessfully enlisted  various  trained  minds  and  experts  in 
religious  pedagogy ;  but  through  the  entire  work  the  real 
architect  was  Dr.  Schmauk  himself. 

The  books  appeared  in  regular  order,  their  very  titles 
indicating  the  unity  of  the  series  and  the  harmonious 
development.  The  intermediate  grades  were  issued  in 
the  order  of  their  use  in  the  schools  which  thus  pro- 
gressed through  the  Graded  System  as  it  was  developed, 
as  follows:   Bible  Story,  (1897)  ;  Bible  History,  (1898)  ; 


EDITOR   AND   SUNDAY   SCHOOL  LEADER  89 

Bible  Geography,  (1899);  Bible  Biography,  (1901); 
Bible  Teachings,  (1902)  ;  Bible  Literature,  (1903) ;  Bible 
Readings,  a  supplementary  Grade  inserted  between 
Story  and  History,  appeared  in  1905 ;  Bible  Facts  and 
Scenes,  a  simplified  Bible  Geography,  appeared  in 
1906.  The  latter  book  is  still  very  popular  and  is  used 
in  institutions  and  as  a  teacher's  book.  In  1912  a  sim- 
plification of  Bible  Literature  appeared  under  the  title 
of  Bible  Outlines. 

Meanwhile  a  German  translation  of  Bible  Story  and 
of  Bible  Readings  had  appeared,  also  a  Swedish  Bible 
Story,  and  the  literature  in  some  of  its  grades  was  asked 
for  in  Icelandic,  also  in  Telugu,  Japanese  and  Spanish. 
The  Primary  work  begun  simultaneously  with  the  inter- 
mediate Grades  very  soon  took  form  in  the  Three  Grade 
Primary  Department.  These  three  grades  are  known  re- 
spectively as  Wonderland,  Workland,  Pictureland,  hav- 
ing their  corresponding  literature  for  the  children  in 
Sunbeams,  Sunshine  and  Sunrays.  Sunrays  corresponds  to 
the  large  Picture  Charts  in  the  development  of  which 
Dr.  Schmauk  displayed  not  only  his  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  and  the  Bible  stories,  but  his  familiarity  with  the 
great  and  the  beautiful  in  art  illustrative  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Many  extended  trips  were  made  to  find  and 
examine  pictures,  as  well  as  to  the  plant  of  the  lithog- 
raphers many  miles  distant.  It  was  thus  that  he  kept 
his  hand  on  every  detail  of  the  work.  While  many 
writers  were  used  and  gave  mature  thought  to  the  con- 
tents of  the  books  which  bear  their  names  as  the 
authors,  these  were  like  skilled  workmen  laboring  under 
the  supervision  of  the  general  architect  and  superin- 
tendent. 

In  the   complete   plan,   provision    was   made    for   the 


90  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

child  at  the  earliest  moment  of  its  existence.  Hence  in 
1910  there  appeared  the  foundation  book,  "In  Mother's 
Arms,"  a  book  which  is  for  the  mothers  of  babes  from 
birth  to  two  years  of  age.  It  emphasizes  the  content 
of  baptism  and  begins  in  the  true  Lutheran  way  with 
the  new  birth.  "At  Mother's  Knee,"  the  second  book 
dealing  with  the  child  from  two  to  four  years  of  age, 
was  vividly  and  completely  thought  out  in  the  mind  of 
this  great  pedagogue;  but  unfortunately  his  multitudi- 
nous and  important  duties  and  increasing  burdens  in  the 
later  important  developments  in  the  Church  wherein  he 
figured  as  a  major  factor,  prevented  the  actual  writing  of 
the  book.  Much  material  has  been  gathered  and  the  hope 
is  that  one  of  those  formerly  associated  with  him  may 
be  able  to  work  out  this  volume  and  at  least  find  and 
give  to  the  Church  the  salient  features  of  that  which 
Dr.  Schmauk  had  in  mind. 

A  most  interesting  and  illuminating  side  light  on  the 
versatility  of  Dr.  Schmauk  is  to  be  noted  in  connection 
with  the  preparation  of  the  little  treatise  "In  Mother's 
Arms,"  a  book  dealing  with  youngest  infancy  in 
the  most  tender  and  affectionate  way  and  in  which 
the  bachelor  author  with  perfect  understanding 
throws  himself  in  o  the  situation  of  the  mother  and 
with  the  tenderest  manner  and  in  the  most  sympathetic 
way  deals  with  mother  and  babe.  This  gentle  book, 
sweet  in  its  simplicity  and  beauty,  appeared  in  1910. 
Simultaneously  wi  h  the  writing  of  this  simple  book 
for  the  mother  and  the  babe,  was  prepared  that  scholarly 
work  on  the  Confessional  Principle,  a  discussion  for  the 
historian  and  theologian. 

When  "In  Mother's  Arms"  appeared.  Dr.  Shimer, 
assistant  superintendent  of  the  New  York  City  schools, 


EDITOR  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  LEADER    91 

wrote  him:  "There  is  a  good  homely  streak  of  old- 
fashioned  virtue  in  your  pedagogy  that  makes  one  feel 
that  the  training  of  the  young  may  safely  be  guided  by 
you."    An  Episcopalian  rector  paid  a  similar  tribute. 

As  he  traveled  about  from  place  to  place  to  explain 
and  demonstrate  the  System,  he  astonished  Sunday 
School  workers  in  all  parts  of  the  Church  with  the  re- 
markable ease  with  which  he  could  translate  himself 
into  the  realm  of  childhood  and  meet  it  on  its  own  level. 
Not  a  few  still  recall  these  demonstrations  and  speak 
of  them  in  glowing  terms. 

A  doctor  of  divinity  of  the  former  General  Synod, 
who  later  introduced  the  Graded  System  in  his  Sunday 
School,  writes  of  what  he  heard  and  saw  when  Dr. 
Schmauk  visited  Chicago.     He  says: 

One  was  always  impressed  with  the  towering  physique  of  Dr. 
Schmauk.  His  was  a  commanding  presence.  I  shall  never  forget 
one  fine  illustration  of  his  bigness  of  heart  and  intellect,  on  the 
occasion  of  my  first  meeting  Dr.  Schmauk.  He  had  come  to 
Chicago  to  lecture  on  Sunday  School  work.  At  one  of  the  ses- 
sions of  the  convention,  he  demonstrated  the  work  of  the  Kinder- 
garten Grade.  He  had  told  us  how  it  should  be  done.  A  teacher 
in  Wonderland  should  have  four,  five  or  six  children,  never  more 
than  six,  gathered  about  him,  all  sitting  on  the  little  chairs,  and 
then  tell  them  the  Bible  Story  in  plain  language,  and  with  each 
lesson,  a  short  verse  of  a  simple  hymn,  with  tune,  should  be 
taught. 

To  see  Dr.  Schmauk  seat  himself  upon  a  kindergarten  chair, 
with  six  children  under  six  years  of  age  similarly  seated,  grouped 
about  him,  was  really  a  privilege.  He  lost  himself  to  his  audi- 
ence, as  he  gave  himself  to  the  precious  task  before  him.  It 
was  impressive.  It  was  inspiring,  to  see  and  hear  this  big  man, 
big  in  stature,  yes,— now,  more  especially  big  in  heart,— as  he  be- 
came utterly  oblivious  of  all  else,  and  devoted  those  splendid 
talents  of  his  to  telling  a  wonder  story  from  the  Word  of  God, 


92  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  that  little  band  of  little  folks,  attentive,  absorbed  as  they  were 
in  the  story-teller  and  his  message. 

Others  have  expressed  themselves  similarly  and  have 
spoken  of  the  inspiration  they  received  from  these  dem- 
onstrations of  the  System. 

This  System  had  been  recognized  at  Washington  by 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  as  the  pioneer  in  this 
field  and,  for  completeness  and  pedagogic  excellence, 
without  a  peer.  His  intimate  knowledge  of  the  child 
mind  and  child  nature — ^^his  wonderful  adaptability  which 
enabled  him  to  meet  its  needs — his  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  whole  range  of  literature  that  had  any  bear- 
ing, however  remote,  on  the  subject  of  the  religious  in- 
struction of  the  young — ^and  above  all  his  unshaken  faith 
in  the  Revelation  of  which  the  Scriptures  are  the  un- 
erring record — made  him  a  leader  and  a  prince  in  this 
field  of  endeavor. 

As  the  books  of  the  Graded  Series  were  published, 
he  saw  how  they  might  be  improved,  and  in  the  earlier 
years  made  many  revisions — even  entirely  rewriting  in 
some  instances.  With  the  new  situation  which  developed 
in  the  merging  of  the  General  Bodies,  his  part  was  so 
great  that  much  that  he  had  in  mind  for  the  further  im- 
provement of  the  graded  system  had  to  be  deferred.  Yet 
he  looked  forward  with  keen  interest  and  great  ex- 
pectation to  the  realization  of  his  earlier  dreams  when 
in  the  beginning  of  the  work  he  approached  others  for 
the  development  of  a  Common  Lutheran  Series  of 
Graded  Sunday  School  Lessons. 

His  last  work  was  for  the  children  of  the  Church, 
and  in  his  final  illness  his  mind  was  on  that  work  which 
through  all  his  busy  career  and  in  the  midst  of  his  varied 
and  multiplying  duties  was  always  nearest  to  his  heart. 


EDITOR   AND   SUNDAY   SCHOOL   LEADER         93 

Religious  education  in  the  Lutheran  Church  will  always 
owe  a  great  debt  to  the  "Lebanon  Master  in  Lutheran 
Bible  Schools." 

The  need  of  trained  teachers  led  in  1914,  with  the 
aid  of  others,  to  the  founding  of  a  Teacher  Training 
Quarterly,  in  which  the  principles  of  the  various  grade 
text  books  were  fully  presented  and  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  teaching  formulated  and  discussed.  In  these 
quarterlies  there  appeared  a  vast  amount  of  material, 
ultimately  designed  for  permanent  books.  Out  of 
these  pages  came  the  basis  of  the  book  which  appeared 
just  a  few  days  prior  to  his  death,  namely,  "How  to 
Teach  in  Sunday  School."  This  book  is  a  fitting  climax 
to  his  great  and  unfinished  work  for  the  Sunday  Schools 
of  the  Church,  a  work  which  will  exert  an  influence  to 
coming  generations. 


CHAPTER  X 
Citizen,  Patriot  and  Public  Speaker 

Thou,  Lord,  hast  made  our  nation  free. 

I'll  die  for  her  in  serving   Thee.  — Schmauk. 

THERE  have  been  few  leaders  in  the  Lutheran 
Church,  who,  without  confusing  the  functions 
of  the  State  and  the  Church,  have  so  thor- 
oughly and  heartily  identified  themselves  with  interests 
in  civic  life  as  did  this  Lebanon  pastor.  His  father 
knew  the  full  meaning  of  patriotism.  When  the  Civil 
War  began,  the  father  found  it  necessary  to  show  his 
colors  (for  feeling  ran  high  in  those  days  at  Lancaster) 
and  he  preached  loyalty  to  his  people  at  the  risk  of  his 
life.  The  mother  had  decorated  the  baby  coach  with 
the  American  flag.  An  advance  guard  of  the  rebel  army 
had  burned  the  bridge  at  Columbia,  ten  miles  from  Lan- 
caster, at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  patri- 
otism in  Salem  congregation  as  at  Zion's,  Lancaster, 
rose  to  fever  heat.  Later  when  Richmond  was  taken, 
the  father,  who  had  then  become  pastor  at  Lebanon, 
announced  the  tidings  to  the  people  of  Lebanon  by  ring- 
ing the  bell  of  Old  Salem. 

The  son  was  four  years  of  age  when  the  father  moved 
to  Lebanon.  Salem  Church  had  had  its  full  quota  of 
men  who  had  been  at  the  front.  Military  and  other 
patriotic  demonstrations  were  in  high  favor,  and  it  was 
natural  that  the  boy  of  four  should  take  to  playing  sol- 
dier in  his  youth  as  a  fish  takes  to  water.  Add  to  this 
his  peculiar  bent  of  heart  and  mind  which  allowed  noth- 
ing of  human  interest  to  seem  foreign  to  him,  and  it  is 


CITIZEN.    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER      95 

easily  explainable  that  from  his  youth  to  the  end  of 
his  days  he  should  take  an  intense  interest  in  civic  affairs. 

This  interest,  as  we  have  seen,  blossomed  forth  when 
in  the  local  press  he  played  the  part  of  the  "Village 
Blacksmith."  It  revealed  itself  in  his  early  popular  lec- 
tures. He  sympathized  keenly  with  the  honest  and 
faithful  toiler  who  found  it  difficult  to  live  from  hand 
to  mouth.  This  crops  out  in  his  lecture  on  "The  Blue 
Side  of  a  Dollar  a  Day."  Another  lecture  of  his  that 
touched  the  human  side  of  life  was  on  the  theme  "What 
Makes  Men  Happy"?  In  his  addresses  to  the  gradu- 
ating classes  (and  he  was  frequently  pressed  into  ser- 
vice), he  was  sure  to  stir  up  local  civic  pride  either  by 
lauding  some  public-spirited  man  like  Robert  H.  Cole- 
man, who  did  so  much  for  Lebanon's  greater  expansion, 
or  by  recounting  past  history  and  pointing  to  the  noble 
deeds  of  the  fathers  whose  ideals  and  sacrifices  made 
the  city  and  the  county  what  it  was,  or  to  the  large  part 
which  its  citizens  had  taken  in  the  Revolutionary  and 
Civil  Wars. 

As  a  loyal  citizen,  he  keeps  his  eye  on  the  public 
schools  to  see  that  high  standards  are  maintained.  He 
keeps  in  touch  with  teachers'  institutes;  he  attends  the 
Board  of  Health  meetings ;  goes  to  the  license  court  to 
oppose  the  issuing  of  new  licenses;  interests  himself  in 
the  sewerage  question,  in  street  paving,  in  opening  new 
playgrounds;  and  by  his  superior  knowledge  in  all  these 
matters  virtually  compels  men  to  seek  his  advice  or  bend 
to  his  views.  When  the  new  playground  is  finished, 
he  is  invited  to  make  the  address  at  its  opening  to  the 
public;  when  the  Chemical  Fire  Company's  building  is 
dedicated,  Schmauk  must,  of  course,  be  there  to  make 
the  speech.    Citizens  still  relate  how,  after  many  humor- 


96  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

ous  comparisons  and  allusions,  he  switched  into  a  more 
serious  train  of  thoug-ht  and  told  his  audience  how  the 
fires  of  evil  were  being  constantly  kept  burning  in  Leb- 
anon and  how  great  the  need  of  watchfulness  and  zeal 
to  fight  the  flames.  When  the  question  of  street-paving 
was  being  considered  and  the  town  council  had  practi- 
cally decided  upon  either  asphalt  or  brick,  the  preacher 
of  Salem  appeared  before  these  gentlemen  and  presented 
such  a  compelling  array  of  facts  and  arguments  as  to 
win  the  majority  over  to  wooden  blocks.  There  was 
enough  noise  on  the  streets  of  Lebanon  to  make  it  un- 
necessary to  add  to  it.  Why  not  use  material  to  dimin- 
ish it? 

His  devotion  to  the  highest  welfare  of  the  community 
was  recognized  as  being  so  sincere  and  wholesouled  that 
he  could  be  permitted  to  say  things  which  no  other  citi- 
zen dared  to  utter.  When  the  great  strike  at  the  American 
Iron  and  Steel  Company  was  on  in  1901,  the  mob  spirit 
ran  high.  It  culminated  in  a  battle  and  bloodshed  on  the 
nights  of  September  22nd  and  23rd.  One  of  Salem's 
members,  Captain  H.  M.  M.  Richards,  a  descendant  of 
Muhlenberg,  being  one  of  the  company's  trusted  offi- 
cials, was  shot  and  wounded.  Leading  citizens  who  had 
large  interests  at  stake,  quailed  before  this  mob  spirit 
and  none  dared  to  open  his  mouth.  At  this  juncture 
appeared  the  man  of  the  hour,  and  in  the  presence  of 
an  audience  which  more  than  filled  Salem  Church,  Dr. 
Schmauk  boldly  preached  a  powerful  sermon  condemn- 
ing the  reign  of  terror  and  calling  upon  the  citizens  of 
Lebanon  to  come  to  the  defense  of  law  and  order.  From 
that  moment,  the  courage  of  the  orderly  citizens  revived, 
public  sentiment  regained  its  speech  and  the  tide  speedily 
turned. 


CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER      97 

HIS  LOVE  OF  COUNTRY 

Intimate  knowledge  of  local  and  national  history,  par- 
ticularly that  which  pertained  to  the  sturdy  Lutheran 
pioneers  in  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  days,  inspired 
him  with  a  love  of  country  that  was  in  many  respects 
exceptional.  When  invited  to  make  addresses  on  special 
occasions  of  historic  interest,  he  literally  poured  out 
facts — and  often  on  very  short  notice — as  from  a  peren- 
nial fountain.  When  called  upon  to  make  addresses 
before  the  P.  O.  S.  of  A.  veterans,  he  could  be  counted 
on  to  awaken  in  the  breasts  of  others  the  same  patriotic 
fervor  that  throbbed  in  his  own  bosom.  He  on  more 
than  one  occasion  reminded  other  audiences  of  how 
Frederick  Augustus  Muhlenberg  (once  a  pastor  of  Salem 
Church)  proclaimed  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  from  his 
pulpit  in  New  York  City,  his  contemptof  the  Tories  who 
stood  ready  to  sell  the  liberty  of  the  Colonies  to  England 
and  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  American  independence. 
He  was  proud  to  remind  them  of  another  Lutheran 
clergyman  who  in  the  church  at  Woodstock,  Virginia, 
laid  aside  his  clerical  robes  while  in  the  pulpit,  called 
for  volunteers  to  follow  him,  and  became  one  of  the 
■most  trusted  generals  of  Washington  in  the  trying  days 
of  the  Revolution. 

These  patriotic  outbursts  brought  him  into  the  lime- 
light as  a  public  speaker,  and  no  celebration  of  either 
civic  or  historic  import  was  considered  complete  without 
the  presence  of  Dr.  Schmauk  either  as  the  speaker  or 
the  presiding  officer.  Later,  when  President  McKinley 
was  shot.  Dr.  Schmauk  preached  a  sermon  to  a  crowded 
church  that  made  a  deep  impression.  It  was  a  strong 
arraignment  of  the  spirit  of  anarchy  and  warned  against 
influences  and  tendencies  subversive  of  everything 
H 


98  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Americans  should  hold  dear.  Later  upon  the  death  of 
the  martyr  President,  another  sermon  was  preached  of 
such  eloquence  and  power  as  to  call  forth  the  highest 
praise.  People  in  Lebanon  recall  it  to  this  day.  Both 
sermons  appeared  in  full  in  the  local  papers. 

AS   PUBLIC   SPEAKER 

His  connection  with  the  Chautauqua  and  with  the  two 
historical  societies,  and  his  earlier  lectures  on  popular 
subjects,  proved  to  be  a  great  training  school  to  fit  him 
for  impromptu  speech  on  public  occasions.  He  rapidly 
developed  a  gift  for  the  popular  presentation  of  even  ab- 
struse themes.  He  injected  plenty  of  spice  by  his  fre- 
quent sallies  of  wit  and  humor,  and  by  drawing  copi- 
ously on  his  imagination.  His  commanding  form  and 
resonant  voice  stood  him  in  good  stead  at  all  times.  But 
it  was  his  ready  command  of  fluent  and  forceful  English, 
and  his  ability  to  get  into  whole-souled  touch  not  only 
with  the  subjects  he  dealt  with  but  also  with  his  audi- 
ence that  were  the  real  source  of  his  power  as  an  in- 
spirational speaker.  You  were  impressed  that  there 
stood  before  you  not  only  a  big  mind,  laden  with  rich 
stores  of  knowledge,  but  a  great  big  soul — a  soul  as  play- 
ful as  that  of  a  boy  and  yet  as  deeply  serious  as  that  of 
a  sage  and  a  prophet. 

It  is  well  that,  at  this  point,  something  should  be  said 
of  the  large  use  he  made  of  humor  in  his  addresses  on 
public  occasions.  He  regarded  it  as  almost  essential 
that  the  audience  should  be  put  into  good  humor  so  as 
to  have  an  expectant,  open  and  receptive  state  of  mind. 
First  attention ;  then  action,  was  his  motto.  When  at- 
tention was  secured,  he  knew  that  he  was  in  a  position 
to  carry  his  audience  with  him  whithersoever  he  would. 
Hence  he  made  free  use  of  what  would  be  startling  and 


CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER      99 

often  extremely  fanciful.  There  was  a  deep-seated  ear- 
nestness and  purpose  in  it  all,  as  he  says,  which  many 
who  often  heard  him  have  failed  to  take  into  account. 

In  his  sermons,  he  would  not  permit  his  humor  to 
speak;  but  he  was  always  sure  to  start  out  with  some 
fresh  and  striking  description  to  capture  the  attention 
of  the  hearer.  And  yet  he  never  became  sensational  in 
the  cheap  and  popular  sense  in  which  that  word  is  under- 
stood. He  deplored  sensationalism  as  practiced  by  many 
preachers.  In  his  sermon  skeletons  prepared  under  Dr. 
Mann  at  the  Seminary,  this  peculiarity  crept  out  in  his 
introductions,  and  any  one  who  has  ever  passed  through 
the  ordeal  of  submitting  such  skeletons  to  Dr.  Mann 
might  easily  guess  what  must  have  happened.  "Away 
with  your  flights  of  fancy.  Right  into  the  heart  of  your 
text !"  was  Dr.  Mann's  demand.  Even  he  could  not 
rightly  appreciate  the  purpose  his  favorite  student  had 
in  view. 

When  he  presided  at  meetings,  that  playful  spirit, 
often  delighting  in  striking  fancies  and  hyperboles, 
made  the  speakers  he  introduced  feel  somewhat  em- 
barrassed and  uncomfortable;  but  both  he  and  the  audi- 
ence usually  enjoyed  it.  These  introductions  were  al- 
ways looked  for,  except  when  the  occasion  demanded 
seriousness.  He  took  delight,  at  times,  to  characterize 
the  speaker  in  flowery  language  and  in  humorous  style. 
On  one  occasion  at  least  this  mode  of  introducing  speak- 
ers reacted  against  him.  It  was  when  he  was  invited 
by  President  Haas  of  Muhlenberg  College,  whom  he 
had  more  than  once  introduced  as  speaker,  to  address 
the  students  at  college.  Dr.  Haas  remembered  how  he 
himself  had  been  presented  to  audiences  where  Dr. 
Schmauk  presided,  and  determined  he  would  copy  his 


100  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

method.  He  accordingly  indulged  in  flights  of  fancy 
and  fulsome  rhetoric  and  made  a  very  successful  imi- 
tation of  the  latter's  manner  of  speech;  throwing  up 
his  arms  and  raising  his  voice,  then  suddenly  letting  it 
fall.  After  Dr.  Haas  had  spoken  seriously  about  Dr. 
Schmauk's  work  and  place  in  the  Church,  he  grew  elo- 
quent as  follows : 

"There  has  come  to  us  today  a  great  man,  in  the  sunshine 
among  the  hills,  among  the  budding  trees,  amid  the  blossoms  and 
the  flowers  of  spring.  He  has  descended  upon  us  like  a  mighty 
nightingale,  with  outspread  wings,  and  alighting  upon  this  hill,  is 
now  ready  to  sing  his  sweet  song.  Though  large  in  size,  he  can 
sing  the  charming  lay  of  the  little  bird.  He  can  pass  swiftly  and 
smoothly  from  humor  to  seriousness ;  he  can  amuse  you  while 
he  inspires  you,  passing  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  chang- 
ing from  mood  to  mood  as  he  circles  about  you  and  in  flowing 
sentences  rises  to  ethereal  heights,  then  descends  again  with  a 
sudden  swoop  to  awaken  within  you  a  thrill  of  laughter  as  he 
alights  and  subsides  into  silence." 

It  was  a  successful  parody.  No  one  can  fail  to  recog- 
nize it  as  a  true  copy  of  Schmaukian  speech. 

The  students  did  not  fully  realize  that  it  was  not  Dr. 
Haas's  natural  manner  of  speaking  until  Dr.  Schmauk 
had  launched  out  pretty  fairly  into  his  address.  Then 
the  close  similarity  of  manner  struck  them  so  forcibly 
that  the  boys  saw  the  joke  and  could  not  resist  giving 
expression  to  their  feelings.  There  arose  a  spontaneous 
roar  of  laughter  and  for  once  in  his  life  Dr.  Schmauk 
was  profoundly  embarrassed.  He  was  so  much  taken 
by  surprise  that  he  did  not  fire  back  then,  but  had  his 
fun  with  Dr.  Haas  later. 

No  portraiture  of  Dr.  Schmauk  would  be  complete 
were  the  part  he  played  at  public  functions  in  Lebanon 
to  be  left  out  of  account.     On  one  occasion,  when  the 


Memorial   D 


Opening  of   the   Pi..a 
As    A    Public    SpEai- 


CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER     101 

Hon.  W.  U.  Hensel  of  Lancaster  was  invited  to  deliver 
the  historical  address  before  the  Lebanon  County  His- 
torical Society,  he  had  failed  to  touch  on  many  things 
of  vital  interest  connected  with  the  subject,  and  Dr. 
Schmauk  undertook  to  supply  the  deficiency.  He  pre- 
sented such  a  bewildering  array  of  facts  and  figures  that 
when  he  was  through,  Dr.  Hensel  remarked  to  a  friend : 
"H  I  could  have  found  a  hole  in  the  floor  big  enough, 
I  would  have  been  glad  to  creep  through  it."  It  was 
risky  to  delve  into  historic  lore  in  the  presence  of  Dr. 
Schmauk. 

The  people  of  Lebanon  had  become  so  thoroughly 
dependent  on  his  leadership  whenever  celebrations  of 
civic  or  historic  significance  took  place  that  a  mass  meet- 
ing seemed  incomplete  or  unsatisfactory  without  him. 
The  Grand  Army  men  on  great  national  holiday  occa- 
sions generally  made  sure  that  he  would  be  present  to 
participate.  When  the  Centennial  of  Lincoln's  birth 
was  celebrated  in  1908,  it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that 
he  should  make  the  address.  The  Sons  of  America  Hall 
was  packed,  and  in  a  tribute  of  remarkable  warmth  and 
power,  he  exalted  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which 
our  Republic  is  founded,  and  drew  wholesome  lessons 
that  were  fully  worthy  of  the  occasion. 

SCHMAUK   AND   TAFT 

Dr.  Schmauk's  greatest  achievement  at  introducing 
speakers,  as  the  people  of  Lebanon  unite  in  saying,  was 
when  ex-President  Taft  was  invited  on  January  19, 
1918,  to  a  mass  meeting  in  behalf  of  the  Liberty  Loan. 
The  Academy  of  Music  was  packed  to  the  doors,  and 
no  man  in  Lebanon  but  Dr.  Schmauk  looked  big  enough 
to  preside  at  the  meeting.  He  was  invited  at  a  late  hour 
to  perform  that  duty.    He  accepted,  and  in  an  introduc- 


102  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

tory  speech,  sparkling  with  wit  and  humor,  thrilled  the 
great  audience  with  his  eloquence. 

After  the  President  of  the  Lebanon  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  who  was  also  manager  of  the  gas  plant,  had 
turned  the  meeting  over  to  Dr.  Schmauk  as  chairman, 
the  latter  rose,  and  turning  to  Mr.  Taft  said:  "That 
is  our  gas  man.  It  is  his  duty  to  furnish  light  and 
power.  I  am  not  here  to  furnish  the  gas.  That  is  his 
business.  I  am  here  simply  to  send  out  a  few  electric 
sparks."  He  then  spoke  of  the  resemblance  between 
himself  and  Mr.  Taft  as  to  lateral  physical  outline  rather 
than  as  to  height,  and  before  introducing  the  speaker 
called  upon  the  audience  to  make  the  rafters  ring  by 
singing  the  national  anthem. 

This  done,  he  proceeded  to  acquaint  Mr.  Taft  with 
some  Lebanon  history.  He  spoke  of  him  as  "The  man 
of  national  and  international  fame,"  and  of  Lebanon 
as  "the  most  patriotic  city  of  its  size  in  Pennsylvania." 
He  then  reminded  the  audience  that  five  other  presidents 
of  the  country,  before  they  became  candidates  for  the 
office,  had  visited  Lebanon.  Washington  had  been  there ; 
so  had  Van  Buren,  Harrison,  Buchanan,  Grant  and 
Hayes.  "But  this  is  the  first  time,"  he  added,  "that  we 
have  had  a  real  ex-President  to  speak  here." 

Then  followed  a  description  in  his  characteristic  style 
of  the  fertile  limestone  valley,  rich  in  mineral  resources, 
where  "barns  like  castles  rise"  and  which  the  Germans 
and  Huguenots  had  turned  into  a  fruitful  garden.  He 
recalled  how  in  Colonial  days  Conrad  Weiser,  then  living 
only  seventeen  miles  from  Lebanon,  saved  Ohio,  Indiana 
and  Illinois  during  the  French  and  Indian  war;  how 
Lebanon  County  had  responded  to  the  call  of  the  Nation 
in  the  Revolutionary  War,  in  the  war  of   1812  and  in 


CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER     103 

the  Civil  War,  furnishing  more  than  its  quota  in  all 
three.  Then  turning  smilingly  to  Mr.  Taft,  he  spoke 
of  four  types  of  American  Statesmen  with  whom  the 
honored  guest  was  doubtless  well  acquainted.  There  was 
first  the  philanthropic  type,  William  Jennings  Bryan, 
whose  fondness  for  peace  treaties  and  prohibition  were 
humorously  alluded  to.  Then  came  the  belligerent  type, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  unlike  Bryan,  believed  more 
in  hot  coals  than  in  cold  water,  as  the  guest,  no  doubt, 
was  fully  aware.  Next  came  the  idealistic  or  pedagogic 
type.  President  Wilson,  who  assayed  to  be  the  teacher 
of  the  world  and  who  was  giving  lessons  on  democracy. 
The  fourth  type  was  the  constructive  statesman,  Mr. 
Taft  himself,  who  brought  order  out  of  chaos  in  Cuba 
and  the  Philippines.  While  President  Wilson  opened 
wide  the  lid  of  government,  Mr.  Taft  sat  firmly  on  it. 
Then  closing  he  said  to  the  audience :  'T  introduce  to 
you  our  first  and  fullest-orbed  American  citizen." 

When  the  ex-President  rose  to  speak,  he  seemed  to 
show  signs  that  he  had  unexpectedly  stepped  into  the 
shadow  of  a  man  of  genius  and  power.  Dr.  Schmauk 
had  said :  "I  do  not  know  how  it  happened  that  I  a 
preacher  should  have  been  called  upon  to  introduce  a 
lawyer,"  and  almost  the  first  sentence  Mr.  Taft  uttered 
was,  "I  now  know  why  you  were  called  upon  to  intro- 
duce me."  He  laughingly  commented  on  the  physical 
likeness  between  the  two,  and  remarked  that  while  min- 
isters often  dare  much,  he  had  never  known  any  one 
who  would  have  had  the  temerity  to  make  the  compari- 
sons ventured  by  Dr.  Schmauk.  He  declared  that  he 
was  in  a  tremble  while  the  comparisons  were  being  made. 
He  afterwards  said,  in  substance,  to  several  men  in  pri- 
vate conversation :     'T  never  had  an  introduction  like 


104  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

that.  I  felt  like  a  boy  in  his  presence.  It  is  unusual  to 
find  so  great  a  man  in  so  small  a  city.  You  can  be  proud 
of  him.  No  other  man  could  have  trodden  on  such  dan- 
gerous political  ground  as  he  has  done  without  giving 
offense." 

Was  it  strange  that  many  in  that  audience  should 
have  placed  the  lawyer  and  the  preacher  side  by  side  and 
concluded  that  there  was  presidential  timber  in  the  Leba- 
non ministry? 

SCHMAUK  DURING  THE  WAR 

He  was  much  in  demand  during  the  trying  days  of 
the  late  war.  Lebanon  made  heroic  efforts  to  do  its 
full  share  in  going  over  the  top  not  only  in  furnishing 
men  for  the  army  and  navy,  but  also  in  subscribing  for 
bonds.  As  the  young  men  went  forth  from  time  to  time 
at  the  call  of  the  nation,  he  was  invited  to  speak  the 
parting  words.  When  they  returned,  he  stood  ready  in 
public  meeting  to  welcome  them  back.  He  took  a  spe- 
cial interest  in  the  boys  of  Salem  who  had  gone  to  war 
and  wrote  many  letters  to  them. 

Some  of  his  patriotic  sermons  are  still  remembered 
by  the  soldiers  of  the  Lebanon  County  companies  that 
survived  and  returned.  The  one  delivered  in  the  Chapel 
before  the  veterans  of  Salem  Church  will  never  be  for- 
gotten by  the  great  throng  that  heard  it. 

When  interest  in  the  Liberty  Loan  seemed  to  be  lag- 
ging, he  was  called  upon  to  create  the  needed  enthusiasm, 
and  he  always  did  it  with  marked  success.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  addressed  a  great  crowd  from  the  steps  of  the 
Post  Office  Building.  He  there  kindled  a  fire  that  made 
the  sparks  of  patriotism  fly  high,  and  the  result  was  that 
the  quota  was  oversubscribed.  On  another  occasion,  he 
addressed   a   large   assembly  at   a  base   ball  game,   and 


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CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER     105 

drawing  his  illustrations  from  the  great  national  sport, 
he  placed  the  Kaiser  at  the  bat,  the  German  submarines 
and  armies  on  the  bases,  the  Allies  behind  the  batter 
and  the  United  States  as  pitcher  in  front  of  him,  with 
the  result  that  the  batter  fanned,  and  the  game  was  lost 
to  the  Kaiser.  It  took  the  base  ball  fans  by  storm,  and 
they  speak  of  that  "great  speech"  to  this  day. 

On  still  another  occasion,  the  Fourth  of  July  was 
turned  to  good  account  for  another  Loan  Drive.  Market 
Square  was  crowded  with  a  throng  of  expectant  people, 
and  Protestant  and  Catholic  joined  hands,  as  citizens, 
to  celebrate.  Father  Christ  and  Pastor  Schmauk  were 
present  as  the  speakers.  Though  far  removed  from  each 
other  as  the  poles  in  matters  of  faith,  both  were  on  terms 
of  cordial  friendship  and  enjoyed  each  other's  respect 
and  confidence.  This  was  publicly  declared  by  the  priest 
when  he  rose,  after  what  was  termed  a  "great  speech" 
by  Dr.  Schmauk,  and  remarked  that  he  had  "a  warm 
spot  in  his  heart"  for  his  neighbor,  and  was  "sure  that 
Dr.  Schmauk  had  a  warm  spot  in  his  heart  for  him." 
Both  believed  that  it  was  one  thing  to  fellowship  as 
citizens  and  quite  another  to  fellowship  as  ecclesiastics.* 

After  Dr.  Schmauk  had  written  an  editorial  in  The 
Lutheran  Church  Review,  soon  after  the  war  broke  out, 
to  counteract  British  propaganda  in  the  American  press, 
which  was  calculated  to  involve  the  United  States  in 
the  great  conflict,  and  had  in  thorough  and  convincing 
manner  laid  bare  the  causes  that  led  up  to  the  war  (for 


*  Father  Christ  gave  evidence  of  the  warm  friendship  he  cherished  for 
Dr.  Schmauk  a  few  days  before  the  latter's  death.  The  family  were 
badly  in  need  of  a  night  nurse,  for  the  one  who  served  as  day  nurse  was 
engaged  at  night  for  service  in  a  Roman  Catholic  family.  When  the 
priest  was  apprised  of  that  fact,  he  ait  once  went  to  his  sick  parishioner  and 
pleaded  for  the  release  of  the  nurse  that  the  greater  need  in  the  Schmauk 
homestead  might  be  supplied.  He  succeeded  and  won  golden  opinions  for 
his  noble  act  from  the  family  and  members  of  Old  Salem  which  will  long 
be  cherished. 


106  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

it  ranks  among  the  clearest  and  best  expositions  that 
were  written)  many  have  wondered  that  he  should  have 
seemed  to  reverse  himself  when  the  United  States  de- 
clared war.  While  he  condemned  the  militaristic  phil- 
osophy of  Germany,  he  did  not  in  reality  reverse  him- 
self. He  was  far  from  believing  that  the  guilt  of  the 
war  rested  on  Germany  alone  and  that  England,  France 
and  Russia  could  wash  their  hands  in  innocency.  But 
he  deplored  the  brutal  war  methods  adopted  by  the 
German  militarists,  and  when  his  country  had  spoken, 
for  it  alone  among  the  nations  could  lift  up  unstained 
hands  and  declare  a  righteous  war,  he  in  true  Lutheran 
spirit  submitted  to  the  decision  of  the  Government  and 
left  the  responsibility  rest  where  it  belonged.  His  intense 
patriotism  would  not  permit  him  to  whisper  a  word  against 
his  Government,  though  he  deplored  the  fanaticism  which 
led  it  at  first  to  refuse  enlistment  to  those  whose  names 
indicated  German  descent.  He  was  wounded  to  the  heart 
to  think  that,  in  spite  of  what  Lutherans  had  done  to 
save  their  country  in  the  days  of  the  Revolution  and 
later  in  the  Civil  War,  their  descendants  should  now  be 
treated  as  hyphenates. 

This  righteous  indignation  found  expression  in  a  re- 
markable impromptu  speech  delivered  in  New  York  City 
at  the  organization  of  the  United  Lutheran  Church  in 
1918.  When  the  Hon.  Edmund  Rommel  (whose  name 
indicates  his  German  ancestry)  representing  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Education  had  addressed  that  body  on 
the  question  of  Americanizing  foreigners,  Dr.  Schmauk 
immediately  rose  to  his  feet  and  proceeded  to  correct 
what  he  believed  to  be  an  impression  at  Washington,  that 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country  is  not  a  thoroughly 
American  Church.     His   statement  struck  a  responsive 


CITIZEN,    PATRIOT    AND    PUBLIC    SPEAKER     107 

chord  and  called  forth  frequent  applause.     It  is  worthy 
of  a  place  in  this  biography. 

THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  NOT  A  FOREIGN  CHURCH 

"I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  all  that  has  been  said  by  this 
worthy  representative  of  the  Government,  but  I  also  feel,  how- 
ever, that  while  we  are  most  heartily  interested  in  the  foreign 
work,  we  are  not  a  foreign-born  Church.  It  is  difficult  to  avoid 
the  impression  that  some  of  our  officials  at  Washington  :believe 
that  to  be  a  Lutheran  is  to  be  a  foreigner. 

"I  want  to  say  here,  in  view  of  recent  statements  in  print,  that 
the  Lutheran  Church  was  in  North  America  three  years  before 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  ever  set  their  foot  upon  New  England  soil. 
I  want  to  say  here  that  there  were  Lutherans  on  these  rocky 
shores  of  Manhattan  two  years  after  the  Mayflower  landed  at 
Plymouth  Rock.  I  want  to  say  further  that  there  was  an  organ- 
ized Lutheran  Church  here  in  Manhattan  130  years  before  the 
American  Revolution  ever  took  place.  I  want  to  say  that  had 
it  not  been  for  Benjamin  Franklin  and  the  German  Lutherans  in 
Pennsylvania  the  combination  of  the  United  Colonies  into  the 
United  States  would  have  been  impossible.  It  was  the  Germans 
of  Pennsylvania  who  stood  behind  Franklin  as  against  the 
Quakers  that  enabled  the  Revolutionary  War  to  succeed. 

"I  want  to  say  still  further  that  in  my  dealings  with  Washing- 
ton my  congregation  has  been  characterized  as  a  foreign-born 
congregation.  My  congregation,  as  I  already  said  in  this  con- 
vention, had  a  pastor  who  became  the  first  speaker  of  the  first 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States.  With  their 
townsmen,  my  congregation  sent  flour  and  money  in  1774  to 
Boston  after  the  famous  tea  party  there  and  the  closing  of  the 
port  of  Boston,  in  order  to  help  to  preserve  American  liberty. 
In  the  highest  tower  of  my  steeple  there  hangs  a  silver  bell  that 
was  cast  in  1770  in  London,  and  from  its  height  began  to  ring 
out  into  all  the  region  round  about  me  the  inscription  that  is 
found  on  its  face,  and  that  inscription  is,  'Proclaim  liberty  aloud 
to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.' 

"The  people  of  my  congregation  furnished  one  general,  one 
colonel,  and  perhaps  from  one-third  to  one-fourth  of  every  mem- 
ber in  it  to  the  Revolutionary  War.     And  then,  today,  in  writing 


108  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

to  the  pastor  of  that  congregation,  Washington  hints  'A  foreign- 
born  congregation.' 

"On  the  24th  of  this  month  of  November  it  will  be  215  years 
since,  in  1703,  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Philadelphia,  with  solemn 
ceremonial,  set  apart  Justus  Falckner,  in  probably  what  was  the 
first  regular  ordination  of  a  Protestant  clergyman  in  America, 
for  the  holy  ministry,  and  to  become  the  pastor  of  the  Dutch 
Lutherans  in  New  York,  where  he  officiated  faithfully  until  his 
death  in  1723.  New  York  still  preserves  his  Church  Record,  and 
we  still  possess  a  copy  of  his  ordination  certificate  signed  by 
the  three  Lutheran  ministers  that  laid  hands  on  his  head." 

This  impromptu  speech  was  afterwards  circulated  in 
pamphlet  form,  and  was  most  cordially  welcomed  by 
thousands  of  Lutherans,  who  had  felt  the  sting  of  the 
cruelly  unjust  aspersions  cast  upon  a  Church  that  had 
sent  a  larger  proportion  of  sons  to  the  front  than  any 
other  religious  or  secular  body  in  the  country. 


CHAPTER  XI 
Death  of  the  Father   (1898-1903) 

My  Father,  my  Father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and   the  horse- 
men thereof— 2  Kings  2:12. 

THE  year  1898  proved  to  be  memorable  in  the  life 
of  the  younger  Schmauk,  and  marks  a  distinct 
era.  The  one  great  event  toward  which  father 
and  son  were  looking  with  joyful  anticipation  was  the 
celebration  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Church 
building  in  which  three  generations  had  worshipped.  It 
had  displaced  a  log  church  erected  ten  years  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed.  It  was  dedi- 
cated on  June  3,  1798.  It  still  stands  as  a  monument 
of  solid  and  substantial  architecture  so  characteristic  of 
the  buildings  of  those  times.  Its  stone  walls  will  doubt- 
less be  standing  a  century  hence  when  other  later  struc- 
tures will  have  fallen  to  decay.  George  Lochman  was 
the  pastor  who  planned  for  its  erection  and  who  carried 
the  project  through. 

The  father  had  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the  forth- 
coming celebration  and  was  seeking  to  make  it  the  occa- 
sion for  a  new  era  of  expansion.  He  had  hoped  to  see 
the  erection  of  a  new  church  building  which  was  to  be 
used  for  English  services  only.  In  the  early  nineties  al- 
ready much  had  been  said  in  church  council  about  building 
an  extension  to  the  old  church  structure,  so  as  not  to 
place  too  heavy  a  financial  burden  on  the  congregation; 
to  this  both  pastors  were  opposed. 

The  shadow  of  a  great  sorrow  was  soon  to  fall  upon 
these  fond  anticipations.    On  March  5th  the  father,  who 


110  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

had  been  in  failing  health  for  some  time,  became  seri- 
ously sick — and  in  the  midst  of  the  busy  Lenten  season 
preparatory  to  confirmation  and  the  celebration  of  Eas- 
ter. He  gradually  became  worse  and  on  April  1st  a 
specialist  from  Philadelphia  was  summoned.  Two  days 
later  was  Palm  Sunday  and  we  read  in  the  Diary  that 
after  the  confirmation  services,  the  son  spent  "the  rest 
of  the  day  with  father,  w^ho  was  very  sick."  Early  on 
the  following  day  at  1 :45  A.  M.,  in  the  presence  of  the 
family,  the  pillar  upon  whom  the  younger  Schmauk  had 
leaned  many  years  was  broken.  A  note  in  his  Diary  of 
April  4th  reads:  "Father  died.  My  Father!  My 
Father !  O  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us !"  It  was  the 
outburst  of  a  soul  who  now  realized  that  he  stood  alone. 
Shortly  before  this  Salem  had  lost  one  of  its  pillars 
in  the  death  of  George  H.  Reinoehl,  "an  authority  on 
church  and  town  history,"  as  Schmauk  says,  and  one 
of  his  intimate  friends  and  counsellors.  The  well-known 
friend  of  his  father.  Rev.  Dr.  Kohler,  was  also  called 
to  his  heavenly  home  seven  days  later.  On  July  4th 
followed  the  death  of  his  associate,  Rev.  F.  M.  Seip, 
pastor  of  Trinity  mission.  This  added  greatly  to  the 
sense  of  loneliness  he  felt  and  the  weeks  that  followed, 
with  the  Review,  the  Sunday  School  work,  and  numer- 
ous pastoral  duties  on  his  hands,  are  a  record  of  ardu- 
ous tasks  performed  under  the  handicap  of  much  de- 
pression of  spirit  and  numerous  illnesses,  the  most  seri- 
ous of  which  was  an  attack  of  quinsy  with  a  consequent 
nervous  breakdown.  In  addition  to  all  this,  there  loomed 
up  before  him  the  task  of  preparing  for  the  centennial 
celebration  of  the  dedication  of  Old  Salem  Church.  A 
history  must  be  written, — and  in  a  few  weeks'  time,  if 
the  festivities  were  to  take  place  on  June  3rd.     Much 


DEATH    OF   THE   FATHER  111 

of  this  history — an  octavo  volume  of  200  pages — was 
written  in  bed.  As  the  time  for  the  meeting  of  synod 
was  at  hand,  it  was  decided  to  postpone  the  celebration 
to  Sunday,  June  17th,  so  as  to  permit  of  the  completion 
of  the  history,  which  at  the  same  time  was  to  embody 
much  of  the  story  of  Lebanon's  past.  The  week  pre- 
ceding, as  may  well  be  imagined,  was  an  intensely  busy 
one.  We  read  in  his  Diary:  "Working  all  week  on 
Salem  Church  History,  reading  proof,  etc.,  until  one,  two, 
three  and  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Finished  writing 
Thursday  noon." 

The  high  esteem  in  which  the  father  was  held,  and 
the  strong  affection  the  congregation  cherished  toward 
him  made  it  easy  to  enlist  a  hitherto  hesitating  people 
in  the  project  of  building  a  new  church  instead  of  ruin- 
ing the  old  structure  by  enlarging  it.  What  could  now 
be  more  natural  than  to  signalize  the  centennial  services 
by  erecting  a  chapel  to  the  memory  of  a  sainted  pastor? 
Nine  days  after  his  death,  the  church  council  met  and 
unanimously  agreed  to  propose  to  the  congregation  at 
its  meeting  on  May  1st  the  erection  of  a  suitable  memo- 
rial. A  note  in  the  Diary  states  briefly,  "It  was  decided 
to  build  a  chapel." 

Then  followed  increasingly  busy  days,  interspersed 
with  frequent  attacks  of  illness.  Though  an  associate 
pastor  in  the  person  of  Rev.  Ernest  P.  Pfatteicher  was 
speedily  secured,  duties  multiplied.  The  Review  made 
heavy  demands  upon  his  time,  and  as  its  finances  were 
not  then  in  good  shape,  he  tendered  his  resignation  that 
same  year,  which  was  not  accepted.  He  was  in  the 
midst  of  the  arduous  task  of  developing  the  Graded 
Lesson  Series.  He  became  more  and  more  the  inspira- 
tion and  mainstay  of  the  two  historic  societies  he  had 


112  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

helped  to  organize,  and  in  addition  took  an  interest  as 
a  life  member  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
He  was  not  only  literary  editor  of  The  Lutheran,  but 
kept  in  constant  touch  with  all  its  interests.  In  view 
of  his  ever-widening  activities  and  the  high  rank  he  had 
taken  as  a  scholar  and  a  leader,  he  had  been  honored 
the  year  before  (1897)  by  Muhlenberg  College  with  the 
title  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

With  the  year  1899,  a  new  era  dawned  upon  the  life 
of  Dr.  Schmauk.  The  death  of  his  beloved  and  wise 
counsellor  now  threw  him  completely  upon  his  own  re- 
sources, and  he  began  in  this  period  a  many-sided  career 
whose  demands  upon  his  energies  were  destined  sooner 
or  later  to  consume  him.  With  the  added  responsibility 
of  planning  for  a  church  building  and  looking  after  the 
details  of  its  erection,  the  typewriter  which  had  been  in- 
stalled even  before  his  activities  at  the  Mt.  Gretna  Chau- 
tauqua, was  kept  busy,  his  sister  and  a  number  of  boys 
and  young  men  giving  him  much-needed  assistance  until 
in  1900  he  engaged  a  regular  stenographer,  and  in  addi- 
tion a  secretary  and  proof  reader. 

As  he  had  launched  deeply  into  the  work  of  prepar- 
ing a  Graded  Series  of  text  books  for  the  Sunday 
Schools,  the  Memorial  Chapel  took  the  form  of  a  com- 
bination of  a  churchly  house  of  worship  and  a 
Sunday  School  building.  It  is  a  Tudor  Gothic  struc- 
ture and  cruciform  in  style.  Ground  was  broken  on  Sep- 
tember 12th,  the  cornerstone  laid  September  30th  in 
the  same  year,  and  on  May  19,  1901,  a  massive  building, 
the  pride  of  the  city,  costing  over  $70,000,  was  dedicated 
to  the  service  of  the  Triune  God.  An  interesting  inci- 
dent connected  with  the  consecration  of  the  Chapel  was 
the  planting  of  a  sprig  of  ivy  taken  from  the  vine  that 


DEATH   OF    THE   FATHER  113 

climbed  the  walls  of  the  Wartburg  Castle  in  Germany, 
the  gift  of  a  life-long  friend  and  schoolmate  of  his  father, 
Mr.  John  B.  Zimmele,  who  was  then  traveling  through 
Germany. 

What  is  specially  interesting  in  connection  with  the 
erection  of  this  Chapel  is  the  amount  of  detail  work 
and  study  that  was  devoted  to  it  by  Dr.  Schmauk.  He 
had  familiarized  himself  with  the  history  of  church 
architecture  and  mastered  its  fundamental  concepts  and 
principles.  The  materials  that  went  into  the  building 
from  foundation  to  roof  were  selected  by  him,  and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  church  building  of  its  size  and 
cost  can  boast  of  better,  high-grade  material.  An  in- 
stance of  his  expert  knowledge  and  minute  attention  to 
details  is  related  by  one  of  the  churc'h  members  who  ac- 
companied him  to  Philadelphia  to  select  stained  glass 
for  windows  to  be  placed  near  the  eaves  of  the  roof. 
He  revealed  such  an  intimate  knowledge  of  the  manu- 
facture of  glass  that  the  head  man  in  the  department 
turned  to  the  church  member  and  said:  "Who  is  this 
man?  He  knows  more  of  the  manufacture  of  glass 
than  I  do."  This  same  penchant  for  details  was  mani- 
fested later  w'hen  the  pipe  organ,  then  costing  over 
$6,000,  was  to  be  purchased.  Long  before,  he  had  made 
a  study  of  the  organ  and  there  is  now  on  hand  a  manu- 
script almost  completed  for  a  book  of  considerable  size 
on  "The  Church  Organ  and  Its  History." 

His  expert  knowledge  of  the  organ  was  soon  noised 
abroad  and  his  advice  was  sought  by  pastors  contem- 
plating the  purchase  of  similar  instruments.  Two  let- 
ters seeking  such  advice,  and  replies  to  them  by  Dr. 
Schmauk,  are  worthy  of  mention  as  showing  how  thor- 
oughly he  had  entered  into  the  study  of  the  subject. 
I 


114  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

An  inquiry  from  the  Rev.  Robert  L.  Patterson,  of  Somer- 
set, Pa.,  receives  an  answer  of  more  than  three  large 
typewritten  sheets  discussing  the  merits  and  defects  of 
organs  manufactured  by  six  leading  firms.  Even  Roman 
Catholic  priests  sought  his  advice.  A  priest  from  Car- 
lisle, Pa.,  is  "anxious  to  have  reliable  data  to  place  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Bishop"  for  the  selection  of  an  organ 
to  be  built  in  the  new  cathedral  in  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  and 
writes  for  information  in  a  letter  dated  March  17,  1906. 
The  reply  reveals  his  mastery  of  the  subject  and  sets 
forth  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  Austin  organ,  which, 
with  important  modifications,  was  the  instrument  in- 
stalled in  the  Chapel  and  was  designed  by  Robert  Hope- 
Jones.     He  sums  up  its  tonal  quality  thus : 

"If  I  had  full  means  at  command  and  were  about  to  build  a 
new  organ,  I  would  try  to  get  on  their  standard  of  tone  addi- 
tions in  the  direction  of  diffused  rather  than  defined  power, 
golden  mellowness  and  soft  richness  in  larger  abundance  in  small 
stops,  and  greater  richness  in  a  few  large  stops."  He  then  de- 
scribes in  detail  the  "Materials  and  Action"  he  would  insist  upon 
having.  He  says  that  the  organ  at  Salem  Church  is  "notable  for 
a  full,  living,  clear-cut  utterance  of  great  power  and  of  perfect 
smoothness  or  finish.  The  tone,  to  my  ear,  considered  as  to 
quality,  combines  the  unobtrusive  perfection  of  artistic  form  with 
a  full  flowing  energy.  The  majesty  of  the  volumes  is  not  rude 
and  barbaric;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  their  sweetness  in  any 
wise  romantic.  I  have  never  found  the  soft  and  Italian  golden 
sunshine  in  these  tones.  The  power  is  self-contained  and  definite 
rather  than  vaguely  suggestive  and  diffused." 

More  of  a  similar  character  follows. 

DELEGATE  TO  THE  GENERAL  SYNOD 

During  this  period.  Dr.  Schmauk  became  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  larger  questions  and  issues  that  concerned 
the   General    Council,    and   as   delegate   to   the    General 


DEATH   OF   THE   FATHER  115 

Synod  in  1901  presented  overtures  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil to  that  body  looking  toward  a  policy  of  co-operation 
between  the  two  bodies  along  practical  lines.  A  report 
of  part  of  his  address  was  thus  summarized  in  one  of 
the  local  papers : 

"Dr.  Schmauk  came  before  the  General  Synod  not  for  the 
marriage  of  the  two  bodies,  but  only  asking  that  the  Synod 
always  be  a  sister  to  the  General  Council.  He  said  he  merely 
came  to  suggest  co-operation  where  such  would  be  mutually 
advantageous,  and  was  prepared  to  consultj  with  any  committee 
the  Synod  might  be  pleased  to  appoint.  H  his  suggestion  should 
not  meet  with  favor,  he  asked  that  his  presence  should  be  re- 
garded merely  as  a  fraternal  knock  at  the  door.  If  the  knock 
were  not  heard,  he  would  be  content,  like  the  missionaries  in 
India,  to  leave  his  card  and  go  away." 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  a  committee  was  appointed, 
with  Dr.  Dunbar  at  its  head,  and  upon  its  recommenda- 
tion the  following  action  was  taken : 

"Resolved,  that  we  approve  of  a  policy  of  cooperation  between 
the  two  general  bodies  on  lines  that  may  be  found  to  be  prac- 
ticable, after  due  investigation  of  the  various  points  involved, 
and  without  in  any  way  committing  either  body  to  any  entangling 
alliances,  sacrifice  of  principle,  or  interference  with  synodical 
identity. 

"Resolved,  that  a  commission  be  appointed  consisting  of  five 
to  meet  with  and  confer  with  a  similar  committee,  that  may  be 
appointed  by  the  General  Council,  to  consider  and  inquire  into 
such  matters  as  may  come  within  the  scope  of  the  first  resolution 
and  report  at  the  next  meeting." 

Thus  the  door  to  real  co-operation  was  first  opened. 
Favorable  action  resulted,  and  at  the  meeting  of  the  Coun- 
cil in  the  same  year  at  Lima,  Ohio,  he  became  the  author 
of  a  resolution  which  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  of  five  to  meet  with  a  similar  commission 
of  the  General  Synod  for  the  investigation  and  consid- 


116  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

eration  of  a  policy  of  co-operation,  which  later  proved 
to  be  the  beginning  of  new  relationships  leading  up  fin- 
ally to  the  organization  of  the  United  Lutheran  Church. 
He  already  became  recognized  as  a  leading  force  on 
the  floor  of  the  General  Council,  entering  into  the  dis- 
cussions of  great  questions  at  issue  with  intelligence 
and  convincing  power. 

At  this  Lima  meeting  he  could  announce  to  the  Gen- 
eral Council  the  completion  of  the  Graded  Series  of  text 
books,  though  few  realized  the  tremendous  amount  of 
labor  and  energy  expended,  not  only  in  preparing  and 
publishing  the  series,  but  in  giving  numerous  expositions 
of  the  system  in  various  centers.  So  interesting  and 
informing  were  his  presentations  of  the  subject  that  he 
could  hold  the  rapt  attention  of  his  audiences  for  more 
than  an  hour.  "A  Flying  Trip  Through  Twentieth 
Century  Sunday  Schools  with  a  Few  Moments'  Stop  at 
Grade  Stations,"  was  the  novel  and  striking  way  in  which 
he  announced  the  theme  to  be  discussed  during  his  itin- 
erary. 


CHAPTER  XII 

President  of  the  General  Council 

(1903  to  1905) 

In  the  Church  of  our  Lord  and  Christ,  we  do  not  want  a  steam- 
roller unity.  What  we  want  is  a  growth  into  unity.  What  we 
want  is,  not  commercial  but  spiritual,  efficiency — not  a  commercial 
headship  such  as  Rome  has,  but  spirittial  liberty  under  the  head- 
ship of  Christ.  The  finest  trees  grow  zvith  plenty  of  airspace 
abotit  them. — Schmauk. 

WHEN  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Council  in 
Norristown,  Pa.,  in  1903,  this  pastor, 
preacher,  educator,  historian,  lecturer,  editor, 
author,  patriot  and  public  speaker  was  elected  president, 
it  was  inevitable  that  he  would  not  be  satisfied  to  serve 
merely  as  presiding  officer,  attending  during  the  two 
years  of  his  incumbency  only  to  such  matters  of  gen- 
eral interest  as  might  be  thrust  upon  him  in  the  interim. 
He  at  once  took  his  responsibility  most  seriously,  ac- 
quainted himself  with  the  inner  workings  of  the  boards, 
committees  and  synods  so  far  as  he  was  able,  and  planted 
himself  firmly  on  the  doctrines  and  principles  of  the 
General  Council  as  laid  down  by  the  fathers,  determined 
to  keep  true  to  their  aims  and  ideals.  This  became  ap- 
parent when,  two  years  later,  at  the  Council  meet- 
ing in  Milwaukee,  he  presented  his  first  report.  It 
covered  twenty  pages  of  that  year's  minutes  and  was 
the  most  exhaustive  presentation  that  had  yet  been  made 
before  the  General  Council.  He  was  setting  a  new  pre- 
cedent and  enlarging  greatly  the  scope  of  the  duties  and 
services  pertaining  to  the  office. 


118  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

What  is  significant  in  this  first  report  is  that  it  fore- 
casts his  later  undying  loyalty  to  the  General  Council 
and  what  it  stood  for.  He  is  conscious  that  he  has  set 
before  himself  a  larger  task  than  his  predecessors  seemed 
willing  to  assume;  for  after  defining  what  he  conceives 
to  be  the  high  calling  and  mission  of  the  General  Council, 
he  says : 

"Your  President,  believing  that  it  is  far  more  possible  in  this 
generation  than  it  was  at  the  beginning,  to  rely  on  a  united  and 
loyal  Lutheran  consciousness  in  the  General  Gsuncil ;  and  believing 
also  that  it  will  become  increasingly  more  necessary  as  the  years 
pass  to  keep  the  body  in  living  touch  with  its  fundamental  prin- 
ciples ;  and  believing  that  this  is  the  main  work  of  the  President 
apart  from  guiding  business  deliberations ;  has  taken  this  position 
in  the  present  report.  If  the  position  is  a  mistaken  one,  he  trusts 
and  knows  that  the  General  Council  will  declare  its  judgment." 

In  this  report  there  were  twenty  distinct  items,  sev- 
eral of  considerable  importance,  to  which  the  attention 
of  the  Council  was  directed.  Among  them  were  diffi- 
culties that  had  arisen  in  the  Foreign  Mission  field,  the 
question  of  marriage  and  divorce,  modern  evangelism 
and  the  Council's  attitude  toward  it,  and  the  subject  of 
American  Civic  Righteousness,  concerning  which  he 
quotes  what  President  Roosevelt  said  in  praise  of  the 
American  Lutheran  Church  as  the  conservator  of  a 
sturdy  and  virtuous  type  of  Americanism. 

A     PROCLAMATION 

This  report  was  in  reality  Dr.  Schmauk's  proclama- 
tion of  what  he  intended  to  stand  for.  It  was  his  inter- 
pretation of  the  General  Council's  mission  as  a  leaven 
of  genuine  Lutheranism  in  its  truest  American  essence 
and  character.  He  wrote  as  one  deeply  conscious  of 
"the    rapid   passing   away"   of    the    Council's    founders, 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL       119 

taking  account  of  "the  rapid  (Change  in  personality  which 
is  coming  over  our  body,"  by  calling  to  mind  the  deaths 
of  three  ex-presidents  during  the  biennium   (Moldenke, 
Swenson,  Seiss).     Of  the  original  delegation  that  went 
to  Fort  Wayne  to  organize  the  General  Council  in  1867, 
only  three  or  four  remained  in  the  land  of  the  living. 
"To  await  the  coming  of  the  half  century  before  tak- 
ing any   festal   retrospect   into   the  past,  might   deprive 
us  of  those  venerable   founders  whom  God  has  spared 
unto  this  day,"  and  it  followed  naturally  that  the  com- 
mittee on  President's  Report  should  recommend  the  cele- 
bration of  the  fortieth  anniversary  in  1907.    The  serious 
illness   of    Drs.   Weidner   and    Geissinger    and   the    ab- 
sence of   Drs.   Krotel  and  Haas  because   of  illness,  as 
well  as  the  death  of  Dr.   Seip  of  Muhlenberg  College, 
weighed  heavily  on  his  mind.     Then  after  stating  that, 
while  men  die,  the  General  Council  itself  does  not  die, 
he   quotes    what    former   presidents — SchaefTer,    Krotel, 
Krauth  and  Spaeth— have  interpreted  the  mission  of  the 
Council  to  be.     With  this  as  his  introduction,   he   sets 
forth  what  he  himself  believes  is  its  true  character  and 
mission.     As  it  explains  his  attitude  tv-)ward  the  General 
Council,  and  the  great  questions  and  issues  with  which 
it  was  confronted  during  the  seventeen  years  of  his  ad- 
ministration as   president,   his   declaration   must   find   a 
place  in  this  biography.     It  is  the  gauge  by  which  his 
whole  later  life  and  activity  must  be  measured. 

"THE  ONE  CONSERVATIVE  LUTHERAN  BODY" 

"The  future  work  of  the  General  Council  will  devolve  more 
and  more  upon  the  second  generation,  and  by  them  and  by  all 
Lutherans  in  this  land,  two  facts  should  not  be  forgotten: 

"The  first  is  this,  that  the  General  Council  is  the  one  conser- 
vative Lutheran  body  in  this  country,  accepting  unreservedly  both 
the  Confessions  and  the  history  of  the  Church.     As  over  against 


120  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

any  radicalism,  which  would  cut  away  the  Qjnfessional  fullness 
of  our  Lutheran  Church,  or  which  would  make  a  syncretistic 
combination  between  parts  of  our  heritage  and  other  doctrinal 
elements  in  America  which  are  not  our  own,  the  General  Council 
stands  firmly  for  the  complete  and  concordant  sum  of  Lutheran 
truth.  With  equal  firmness  does  it  accept  and  build  upon  the 
historical  past,  both  in  Europe  and  in  this  country,  and  avoid  that 
other  radicalism  which,  instead  of  purging  the  hay,  straw  and 
stubble  from  the  old  foundations,  would  begin,  without  just 
recognition  of  the  good  that  is  in  the  past,  to  erect,  by  means 
of  an  exclusive  ecclesiastical  organization,  a  new  Lutheranism, 
without  regard  to  any  previous  or  contemporary  work  of  Provi- 
dence in  the  land. 

"The  General  Council  is  not  chiefly  constrained  to  preserve 
its  own  organization,  or  to  subserve  the  development  or  preser- 
vation of  any  school  of  theology,  of  any  body  of  emigrants,  or 
of  any  strain  of  blood.  Its  professed  purpose  from  the  begin- 
ning has  been  to  build  upon  the  foundation  of  pure  doctrine  a 
true  and  Catholiic  Lutheran  Church,  with  no  desire  for  the  rule 
of  any  school  of  theology,  or  any  ecclesiastical  party. 

"This  gives  the  General  Council  its  ecumenical  character  and 
outlook,  and  its  safe  and  central  hold  upon  the  future.  It  accepts 
the  one  foundation  solely  and  unreservedly,  and  upon  this  it 
devotes  itself  to  the  upbuilding  of  our  Church  in  this  land.  It 
recognizes  all  the  good  in  the  historical  development  of  the  past ; 
and  recognizes  the  evil  also;  but  it  refuses  to  destroy  the  good 
in  order  that  it  may  thereby  be  enabled  to  burn  out  the  evil. 

"The  attitude  of  Luther  toward  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century  is  the  attitude  of  the  General  Council  toward 
all  forms  of  Lutheranism  today.  It  would  conserve  the  past 
and  upbuild  the  future  on  the  basis  of  a  sound  faith.  Its  depth 
is  the  depth  of  salvation  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  Its  length  is 
the  length  of  history,  and  its  breadth  is  the  breadth  of  our  own 
land  and  our  own  time." 

Then  follow  reasons  why  the  General  Council  "is 
here  to  stay."  While  he  realizes  that  its  organization  is 
necessarily  lacking  in  compactness  and  solidarity  because 
of  the  several  racial  elements  composing  the  body,  and 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL       121 

because  of  "apparently  contradictory  interests"  repre- 
sented in  it,  he  believes  the  General  Council  to  be  the  one 
Lutheran  body  that  is  best  adapted  to  weld  together  the 
various  Lutheran  synods  and  prevent  them  from  drifting 
into  a  type  of  particularistic  and  sectarian  life  which  is 
foreign  to  the  true  genius  of  Lutheranism.     He  says: 

"The  weakness  of  independent  and  divided  Lutheran  congre- 
gations and  Synods  in  this  country  is  a  warning  in  the  history 
of  the  past.  The  ineffectiveness  of  Intersynodical  Conferences, 
conducted  outside  of  any  direction  or  responsibility — which  in- 
deed were  proposed  as  a  substitute  for  the  organization  of  the 
General  Council  in  1866,  and  which  the  General  Council  then 
opposed  as  such — has  been  demonstrated  from  the  earliest  his- 
tory of  these  disputations  in  the  Lutheran  Church  down  to  the 
very  latest. 

"The  general  body,  on  the  basis  of  the  pure  Confessions,  such 
as  we  have  in  the  General  Council  itself,  meets  the  case  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  this  land.  Few  of  us  can  realize  the  great 
loss  that  would  come  to  ourselves,  to  the  whole  Lutheran  Church 
and  to  the  Protestant  Church  throughout  the  world,  if  this  fabric 
of  our  fathers  were  to  perish." 

THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL'S    ATTITUDE    TOWARD    MODERN 
EVANGELISM 

A  letter  had  been  addressed  to  him  requesting  a 
statement  from  him  as  to  the  General  Council's  position 
on  the  question  of  evangelism,  and  the  answer  is  em- 
bodied in  the  report.  It  forecasts  the  attitude  he  later 
took  toward  revivalistic  movements  and  emotional  evan- 
gelism in  general,  and  his  strenuous  efforts  to  offset  this 
tendency  in  American  Protestantism  by  stressing  the 
need  of  an  educational  evangelism.  It  presents  the  Luth- 
eran view  on  this  question  which  reads  as  follows : 

"We  Lutherans  believe  that  every  pastor  is  an  Evangelist,  and 
that  in  every  sermon  the  Law  and  the  Gospel  is  to  be  proclaimed 
for  the  awakening  and   salvation  of   lost    sinners.     It   is   within 


122  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

the  scope  of  our  Church  to  make  provision  for  daily  and  special 
services  for  the  effective  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  the  lost. 
There  is  no  Church  in  all  Christendom  that  so  faithfully  and 
continuously  and  regularly  warns  sinners  and  sets  forth  the 
grace  of  God  and  the  salvation  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

"But  it  is  true  Gospel,  as  we  teach  it,  that  is  to  be  preached 
in  our  parishes.  It  is  those  who  hold  'the  office  of  teaching  the 
Gospel  and  administering  the  Sacraments'  (Augsburg  Confession 
V)  on  whom  this  work  is  to  fall.  The  duty  of  evangelizing  the 
world  at  home  and  abroad  is  not  a  special,  intermittent,  and  spas- 
modic function  of  the  Church,  arising  spontaneously  and  irregu- 
larly in  periods  of  public  excitement,  with  agencies  of  ministra- 
tion created  outside  of  the  regular  bounds  of  the  Church,  and 
subsiding  again  when  the  wave  of  emotional  excitement  has  passed 
over  the  country  and  spent  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a 
constant  part  of  the  regular  work  of  the  Church  to  be  attended 
to,  like  all  other  work  of  the  Church,  in  an  orderly  way,  and  by 
those  duly  called  to  the  'office.' 

"To  Lutherans,  then.  Evangelism,  or  saving  the  sinner  and 
the  world  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  is  not  a  series  of  mixed 
meetings  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  a  union  of  temporarily 
united  but  permanently  divergent  sects,  by  one  who  proclaims  the 
Word  of  Gk)d  with  no  regular  call,  and  who  follows  up  the 
proclamation  with  the  use  of  agencies  and  systems  of  reach- 
ing the  individual  which  our  Church  cannot  approve;  but  Evan- 
gelism is  the  regular  public  proclamation  'by  the  foolishness 
of  preaching,'  of  the  saving  Word  of  God,  the  Law  and  the 
Gospel,  at  daily  and  festival  services,  and  on  all  suitable  occa- 
sions, by  the  Lutheran  pastor  or  Missionary  properly  called  to 
this  work;  and  the  following  up  of  the  public  proclamation  with 
faithful  and  continuous  pastoral  effort. 

"The  Lutheran  Church  does  not  find  it  necessary  to  inaugurate 
special  and  irregular  evangelistic  meetings  in  a  congregation  or 
parish  in  order  to  stimulate  the  flagging  interest  of  church  mem- 
bers lukewarm  and  about  to  fall  away.  While  such  members 
abound  with  us,  yet  the  faithful  use  of  our  regular  means,  and 
honest  labor  under  our  normal  conception  of  justification,  regen- 
eration, conversion  and  sanctification,  which  is  so  much  more 
true,  and  so  far  superior,  in  its  bearings  on  the  inner  life,  to  the 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL       123 

loose,  current  views  of  Christianity,  are  our  most  effective 
means  of  bringing  the  falling  member  back  into  a  state  of  grace. 

"I  am  referring  to  the  Lutheran  doctrine  that  the  Christian 
life  is  a  daily  repentance  and  daily  faith.  Whereas  'Modern' 
Evangelism,  like  old-time  revivalism,  is  inclined  to  make  the 
turning  point  from  the  world  to  be  an  irregular  and  so  to  say 
chance  moment,  occurring  once  or  at  rare  intervals  in  the  life 
of  the  individual ;  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the  daily  turning  from 
sin,  and  the  daily  turning  to  Christ,  is  immeasurably  superior  as 
a  true  power  in  the  application  of  the  saving  Gospel  both  to 
the  unawakened  sinner  without  the  Church  and  also  to  the  gradu- 
ally decaying  soul   within. 

"If  the  Lutheran  Church  is  not  doing  her  duty  in  the  matter 
of  Evangelism,  it  is  because  she  is  not  properly  using  the  most 
potent  means,  regularly  inherent  in  her  nature  and  her  constitu- 
tional mode  of  operation,  ever  given  to  any  Church  for  this 
purpose. 

"With  the  increase  of  extra-ecclesiastical  agencies  and  organi- 
zations, not  regularly  connected  with  the  Christian  Church ;  and 
with  no  lawful  power  of  the  keys  committed  to  them;  with  no 
authority  of  arrangement  for  the  exercise  of  discipline  over 
speakers,  or  people;  with  no  method  of  bringing  home  to  the 
converts,  not  only  the  comfort  but  also  the  responsibilities  of 
the  Christian  life;  with  no  regular  provision  for  the  confession 
of  sins  and  for  the  administration  of  the  Sacraments ;  with  no 
organic  method  for  apportioning  and  bringing  the  awakened  to 
the  regular  ministrations  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments ;  'modern' 
Evangelistic  work  as  an  extra-ecclesiastical  institution  will,  in 
the  long  run,  prove  to  be  of  questionable  value  to  Christianity  for 
'adding  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  should  be  saved'  (Acts  2:47).'' 

That  the  new  President  had  not  overstepped  the  lim- 
its in  breaking  precedents  and  presenting  so  complete 
and  comprehensive  a  report  was  indicated  by  his  re- 
election as  president.  The  Committee  on  President's 
Report  gave  expression  to  the  same  high  opinion  of  the 
President  as  a  trusted  and  capable  officer  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  of  its  report : 


124  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

"In  answer  to  the  question  of  the  President  concerning  the 
functions  of  his  office,  especially  in  the  matter  of  his  official  re- 
port, your  committee  recommends  as  answer,  that  the  present  re- 
port, in  the  wideness  of  its  scope  and  the  fullness  of  its  detail, 
in  referring  to  the  matters  of  vital  interest  to  the  doctrine  and 
life  of  the  Church  and  to  civic  righteousness,  gives  to  this  body 
the  demonstration  of  a  satisfactory  interpretation  of  the  con- 
stitutional functions  of  his  office  in  bringing  to  the  Council's 
notice  topics   for  most  timely  and  profitable  consideration." 

WHAT  WAS  BEHIND  THE  PROCLAMATION 

There  was  a  reason  why  the  new  President's  first 
report  partook  of  the  character  of  a  confession  of  his 
faith  in  the  paragraphs  quoted.  His  correspondence 
after  the  meeting  of  the  General  Conference  of  Luth- 
erans in  Pittsburgh,  April  5-7,  1904,  as  well  as  an  edi- 
torial in  the  July  Review,  show  that  he  was  apprehensive 
of  a  tendency  among  certain  scholars  within  the  Gen- 
eral Council  to  yield  somewhat  to  the  rationalistic  atti- 
tude of  the  negative  critics  toward  the  Scriptures.  When 
at  that  meeting  the  question  of  inspiration  was  discussed, 
certain  statements  were  made  which  leaned  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  well-known  dictum,  that  the  Scriptures  con- 
tain the  Word  of  God  but  may  not  be  spoken  of  as  being 
the  Word  of  God.  A  letter  to  Dr.  Krotel  reveals  a  deep 
feeling  of  depression.  In  it  he  speaks  of  being  "over- 
powered by  a  sense  of  loneliness  and  helplessness"  as 
he  believed  himself  to  be  standing  almost  alone  in  coun- 
teracting with  scholarly  methods  and  arguments  the 
leaven  of  the  Higher  Criticism  that  seemed  to  be  work- 
ing its  way  into  the  General  Council,  as  he  and  others 
feared. 

He  at  the  same  time  realized  that  in  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  this  country,  there  was  a  disposition  on  the 
part  of  most  of  its  theologians  and  pastors  to  rest  satis- 


PRESIDENT    OF    THE    GENERAL    COUNCIL       125 

fied  with  the  position  of  the  teachers  and  dogmaticians 
of  past  generations  and  a  disinclination  to  keep  abreast 
of  the  newer  scholarship  of  the  day  so  as  to  be  able  to 
counteract  its  tendencies  and  dangers.  He  felt  that  few 
or  none  were  capable  of  supporting  him  in  standing  for 
the  defense  of  the  formal  principle  of  the  Reformation 
without  incurring  the  charge  of  being  ignorant  of  the 
problems  involved  in  the  critical  study  of  the  Bible.  He 
deplored  the  indifference  of  many  bright  minds  in  the 
Lutheran  Church  who  rested  satisfied  with  being  simply 
orthodox  and  who  did  not  realize  the  dangers  of  un- 
preparedness  to  meet  the  radicalism  of  the  negative 
critics. 

As  much  criticism  of  certain  loose  statements  during 
the  discussion  on  inspiration  had  come  to  his  ears  (for 
he  himself  was  not  present  at  the  time),  he  felt  that 
the  General  Council  must  embrace  the  earliest  opportu- 
nity to  place  itself  on  record  as  still  standing  by  the 
declaration  of  its  founders,  that  the  Scriptures  are  "in- 
errant  in  letter,  fact  and  doctrine,"  as  the  constitution 
states.  What  could  be  more  conducive  to  a  reassertion 
of  the  Council's  faith  as  related  to  this  and  other  im- 
portant questions  than  the  celebration  of  its  Fortieth 
Anniversary?  He  was  thus  looking  forward  two  years 
for  a  clear  and  unequivocal  reaffirmation  of  that  faith. 

Soon  after  the  Pittsburgh  Conference,  he  prepared  a 
series  of  nine  articles  for  The  Lutheran  on  "Inspiration 
at  Pittsburgh,"  but  as  he  and  the  Editor  agreed,  that 
they  might  create  the  impression  that  the  men  who  had 
made  the  unguarded  statements  at  Pittsburgh  were  al- 
ready dwelling  in  the  tents  of  the  negative  critics,  they 
were  not  published.  It  was  deemed  best  to  discuss  the 
matter  in  the  July  Revicn',  in  which  appeared  an  article 


126  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

by  Dr.  Leander  Keyser  and  an  editorial  by  Dr.  Schmauk. 
The  crucial  point  was  the  declaration  which  had  been 
made,  that  "Christ  is  primary,  and  the  doctrine  of  in- 
spiration secondary."  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Keyser  he  com- 
mends him  for  his  answer  to  that  statement,  which  reads : 
"Do  men  who  speak  and  write  in  that  way  realize  that 
the  Christ  they  exalt  is  only  an  ideal  Christ,  and  not 
the  historical  Christ?"  The  point  made  was  simply, 
where  but  in  the  Scriptures  do  we  know  of  Christ?  If 
the  Scriptures,  in  spite  of  many  textual  errors  that  have 
been  and  are  being  corrected,  but  which  do  not  affect 
its  substance,  are  not  infallible,  even  to  its  very  words, — 
if  we  must  be  uncertain  there — what  guarantee  have  we 
that  we  know  a  real,  historic  Christ?  To  quote  Luther 
and  place  him  among  the  subjective  negative  critics  of 
modern  times,  when  both  he  and  the  later  dogmaticians 
merely  rested  on  the  Scriptures  and  were  not  worried 
by  any  mechanical  or  any  equivocal  definition  of  inspira- 
tion, was  to  read  sixteenth  century  thought  through 
twentieth  century  glasses. 

But  for  that  Pittsburgh  Conference,  the  report  of  the 
President  at  the  Milwaukee  Council  would  have  read 
differently.  Yea  more,  the  Buffalo  Council  that  followed 
would  not  have  struck  the  high  note  of  confessionalism 
it  did,  had  not  the  soul  of  its  President  been  stirred  to 
the  depth  for  fear  of  a  drift  away  from  the  faith  into 
the  shoals  and  quicksands  of   rationalism. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Confessional  High-Water  Mark  (1907) 

"It  is  not  to  us  to  reset  the  course  of  history  by  our  feeble  fiat. 
Union  in  sfririt  and  in  truth  is  not  really  promoted  by  clever 
mechanical  contrivance,  or  by  balanced  doctrinal  compromise. 
Unionists  are  not  taking  the  truly  ruinous  rmn  by  the  horns,  in 
proposing  to  eliminate  doctrinal  distinctiveness.  Theology  is  not 
the  horrid  scapegoat  that  men  make  her  out  to  be.  The  trouble  is 
not  in  the  bones  of  doctrine,  but  in  the  blood  of  life.  You  need 
to  breed  a  better  stock  in  the  fold,  sir.  A  few  centuries  of  gentle 
breeding  ivill  bring  more  union  than  an  eternity  of  blomnng.  It  is 
the  moral  blemishes  that  keep  the  bones  of  doctrine  sore.  It  is  the 
quantity  of  blemish,  not  the  quantity  of  bone,  that  needs  to  be 
reduced. — Schmauk. 

IF  the  prelude  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  administration  as 
President  was  played  at  Milwaukee,  the  grand 
symphony  was  made  to  peal  forth  at  the  Fortieth 
Anniversary  of  the  General  Council  in  1907  at  Buffalo. 
An  elaborate  program,  "with  almost  as  many  speakers 
as  there  were  years  in  the  General  Council's  History," 
as  Dr.  Horn  remarked,  had  to  be  prepared;  and  in  ad- 
dition to  Dr.  C.  T.  Benze's  elaborate  theses  on  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  Council  was  asked  by  its  president  to  put 
itself  on  record  on  the  question  of  co-operation  and  fel- 
lowship with  ncn-Lutherans ;  on  the  relations  between 
the  General  Council  and  the  General  Synod,  for  which 
Dr.  Jacobs  was  asked  to  prepare  theses ;  on  the  question 
of  reaffirming  in  no  uncertain  tones  the  doctrinal  basis 
on   which   the   Council   was    founded.     This  convention 


128  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

was  designed  to  reach  the  high-water  mark  of  confes- 
sionalism  in  the  Council's  history  after  the  eventful 
meeting  at  Fort  Wayne  in  1867.  To  celebrate  such  an 
anniversary  without  reproducing  in  clear  and  distinct 
tones  the  confessional  musdc  of  the  fathers  not  only  at 
Fort  Wayne,  but  as  far  back  as  1530  at  Augsburg  and 
later  in  1580,  at  Bergen,  would  have  been  like  rendering 
Bach's  Passion  with  the  Cross  left  out.  And  so  it  hap- 
pened that  under  the  leadership  of  its  President,  the 
Buffalo  Council  was  asked  to  walk  about  its  Zion,  to 
consider  well  her  bulwarks  and  tore-explore  her  foun- 
dations. "Christ  All  and  In  All"  was  the  theme  of  his 
sermon.  He  found  Christ  in  the  Scriptures,  Christ  in 
the  Confessions,  Christ  in  the  General  Council,  and 
Christ  in  the  heart  of  the  Believer. 

"CHRIST  IN  THE  GENERAL  COUNCIL" 
"Christ  is  our  all  in  the  General  Council.  We  recog- 
nize no  visible  head  but  Christ,  and  demand  the  invisi- 
bility of  the  vital  unity  of  the  Church  until  Christ  Him- 
self shall  again  appear  to  be  our  visible  Lord.  His  own 
living  Headship  and  Person  is  the  supreme  controlling 
unity  of  our  rich  divinity.  As  a  General  Council  we 
are  but  a  voluntary  visible  brotherhood  in  the  unity  of 
the  one  faith  in  Him ;  who  places  general  organization 
at  the  disposal  of  the  congregations,  and  the  Word.  We 
are  not  a  Divine  Institution,  except  as  Providence  has 
brought  us  into  being.  That  there  are  multitudes  of 
sound  Lutherans  who  have  built  upon  the  first  of  the 
Lutheran  Confessions  only,  and  who  have  not  come  to 
a  consciousness  of  the  necessity  of  placing  the  complete 
Lutheran  Confession  at  their  base;  and  that  there  have 
been  many  such  Lutherans  from  the  start,  from  the 
Sixteenth  Century  down,  the  General  Council  does  not 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER   MARK      129 

deny.     But  it  believes,  in  the  spirit  of   a  conservative 
development  as  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  where, 
in  all  ages  of  the  Christian  Church,  God  has  raised  up 
good  men  to  enrich,  enlarge  and  fulfill  confessional  truth 
and  churchly  praxis,  there  it  behooves  us  their  heirs  and 
successors,  to  accept  the  fullness  of  the  Spirit's  develop- 
ment, and  not  merely  the  first  rudiments,  however  de- 
terminative these  rudiments  may  be,  and  that  it  is  our 
duty  to  reject  only  that  in  a  full  confessional  heritage 
which  will  not  stand  the  test  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the 
only  rule  of    faith   and   life.     And   again:   the   General 
Council  does  not  deny,  but  positively  believes,  that  there 
are    good    Christians    scattered    throughout    the    whole 
world,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  and  in 
all  churches  and  denominations,  who  are  God's  children, 
and  who  are  truly  believing  and  righteous  men.     And 
its  guarded  purity  of  teaching,  and  strictness  of  disci- 
plinary organization  is  not  intended  to  disinherit  these 
saints  who  are  in  the  true  Church  of  Christ,  but  is  in- 
tended as  a  witness  against  heresies  and  schisms ;  against 
errors  of  teaching  and  praxis  in  the  preaching  of  God's 
pure  Word  and  the  pure  administration  of  Christ's  own 
Sacraments  in  the  earthly  organizations  in  which  these 
saints   (for  conscientious,  hereditary  or  worse  reasons) 
move  and  live;  in  order  that  the  Word  of  Christ  may 
be  fulfilled,  that  the  Church  of  Christ  as  the  Body  of 
Christ,  and  the  bride  of  Christ,  and  the  pillar  of  Christ's 
truth,  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  which  is  able  to  bring 
confession  and  offer  absolution  to  the  lost  soul,  be  con- 
served and  used.     This  it  is  which  renders  Christ  to  be 
all  and  in  all  in  the  General  Council." 
The  keynote  of  the  Convention,  giving  expression  to 
'  his   faith   in  the   General   Council   and  its   mission   was 


130  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

struck  in  that  part  of  his  report  where  he  speaks  of  the 
Council  as  standing  for  a 

CATHOLIC   LUTHERANISM 

With  the  original  "Call"  as  his  text  he  proceeds  to  in- 
terpret it  for  the  Council  of  today. 

"We  are  not  moving  in  this  matter  on  doubtful  grounds," 
says  the  Call  "With  our  communion  of  millions  scattered  over 
a  vast  territory,  with  the  ceaseless  tide  of  immigration,  with 
the  diversity  of  surrounding  usages  and  religious  life,  with  our 
need  of  ministers,  our  imperfect  provision  for  the  urgent  wants 
of  the  Church,  there  is  danger  that  the  genuinely  Lutheran  ele- 
ments may  become  alienated,  that  the  narrow  and  local  may  over- 
come the  broad  and  general,  that  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace  may  be  lost,  and  that  our  Church,  which  alone 
in  the  history  of  Protestantism  has  maintained  a  genuine  catho- 
licity and  unity,  should  drift  into  the  sectarianism  and  separatism 
which  characterize  and  curse  our  land." 

Dr.  Schmauk  then  gives  his  interpretation  of  the  "Call" 
in  the  following  words : 

"Now  after  a  whole  generation  has  sped  away,  can  we  not 
see  the  counterpart  in  fact,  in  this  body  which  is  meeting  here, 
and  of  which  we  are  representatives  today,  and  which  is  scat- 
tered over  the  whole  of  North  America,  to  that  picture  drawn 
'by  the  pen  of  those  God-given  men  who  felt  impelled  by  reasons 
of  the  gravest  kind  to  assume  the  serious  responsibility  of  first 
organizing  this  body? 

"We  cannot  be  sufficiently  thankful  for  what  God  put  in  their 
minds  to  do,  and  for  the  development  that  followed  upon  their 
eflfort.  Their  success  has  been  beyond  what  a  sober  view  of  the 
situation  would  have  deemed  probable.  The  nature  of  the  case 
really  hinted  at  failure  in  this  bold  attempt.  The  marvel  is,  that 
among  Germans,  Scandinavians  and  English,  such  a  body,  beau- 
tifully wrought  together,  magnificent  in  strength  and  propor- 
tions, should  have  been  possible  at  all.  The  marvel  is  that  the 
General  Council  did  not  go  to  pieces  before  the  first  ten  years 
had  fled — and  that  it  did  not,  is  not  of  our  eflfort;  it  is  the  Lord's 
doing. 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER   MARK      131 

"Whether  the  sound  doctrine  will  sufficiently  prevail,  and  his- 
torical, racial,  and  other  individual  considerations  will  sufficiently 
decline,  to  enable  the  true  Lutheran  Church  of  our  land,  standing 
completely  on  its  great  confessional  foundations,  ever  to  embrace 
all  Lutherans  in  America  is  a  question  which  no  human  being 
can  answer.  God  has  not  led  Christianity  itself  in  any  such  uni- 
versal path  as  yet.  There  has  always  been  the  Church  of  the 
East  and  the  Church  of  the  West.  Since  the  days  of  the  Refor- 
mation, Protestantism  itself,  especially,  has  been  divided.  It  has 
not  been  able  to  solve  the  question  of  universality,  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  means  with  which  it  has  been  taking  hold  of  that 
problem  recently  will  ultimately  retard  rather  than  further  the 
solution.  But  so  far  as  Lutheranism  itself  is  concerned,  con- 
trary to  the  prevailing  American  view  of  it,  as  divided  into  many 
sects,  all  our  general  organizations  have  done  wonders  within 
the  last  generation  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  strength  out  of 
weakness,  and  the  effective  application  of  power  out  of  a  primal 
and  individualistic  confusion. 

"We  cannot  be  sufficiently  thankful  to  the  founders  of  the 
General  Council  for  the  nature  of  the  tabernacle  which  they  be- 
queathed to  us  and  in  which  they  provided  for  liberty  and  union, 
now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable.  Ours  is  a  Lutheranism 
too  broad  to  be  embraced  in  any  language.  Ours  is  a  Lutheran- 
ism which  is   not  national,  but  continental   and  international. 

"The  Lutheran  Church  is  as  broad  as  the  world.  It  is  not  a 
national  Church,  but  is  like  the  roll  of  the  British  drum-beat. 
History  has  shown  that  it  furnishes  the  best  and  most  patriotic 
citizens  and  the  bravest  defenders  of  the  flag  for  any  nation ;  but, 
as  a  Church,  we  are  fostering  not  nationalism,  but  an  international 
spirit.  Our  Saviour  said,  'Go  ye  out  into  dill  the  world.'  He 
said,  'Ye  shall  be  witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem  and  unto  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  earth.'     That  is  the  spirit  of  the  Council. 

"This  spirit  is  imbedded  in  its  very  title,  'The  Church  in  North 
America.'  We  are  a  broader  stream  than  the  stream  of  any  race, 
and  are  ready  to  greet  hand  in  hand  the  children  of  the  pure 
faith  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  thereof.  Let 
us  then  make  our  many  nationalities  and  our  numerous  sectional 
feelings  and  activities  which,  by  nature,  are  a  source  of  weak- 
ness, to  be,  by  grace,  an  instrumentality  of  power.     If  our  inter- 


132  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

national  character  be  a  cause  of  slowness  and  difficulties,  let  it 
also  become  unto  us  a  great  source  of  strength,  our  joy  and 
our  pride." 

THE  GENERAL  COUNCIL  AND  THE  SCRIPTURES 
Since  doubts  had  been  raised  as  to  the  soundness  of 
the  General  Council's  position  with  respect  to  the  "nega- 
tive criticism"  in  its  attitude  toward  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
the  Buffalo  Convention  must  declare  itself  in  no  equivocal 
terms,  and  the  following  declaration  appears  in  President 
Schmauk's  report: 

"Since  it  has  been  asserted  that  the  General  Council  is  weakening 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures,  under  the  influence  of  the  Higher 
Criticism;  and  since  these  principles  are  doing  so  much  in  the 
American  churches  to  disintegrate  faith  in  the  letter  and  the 
spirit  of  the  Scriptures,  I  recommend  that  we  reaffirm  our  posi- 
tion, and  declare  that  the  General  Council  holds  now  as  ever  to 
the  old  teaching  of  the  fathers,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  are 
inerrant  in  letter,  fact  and  doctrine;  as  our  Constitution  and  Prin- 
ciples of  Faith  maintain :  'The  absolute  directory  of  the  will 
of  Christ  is  the  Word  of  God,  the  Canonical  Scriptures,  by  which 
Scriptures  the  Church  is  to  be  guided  in  every  decision.  She  may 
set  forth  no  article  of  faith  which  is  not  taught  by  the  very  letter 
of  God's  Word,  or  derived  by  just  and  necessary  inference  from 
it,  and  her  liberty  concerns  those  things  only  which  are  left  free 
by  the  letter  and  spirit  of  God's  Word.' 

"We  affirm  that  we  have  not  given  way  by  a  hair's  breadth  to  the 
rationalism,  or  the  rationalizing  spirit,  of  the  Higher  Criticism; 
nor  will  we  allow  errant  human  reason  to  be  the  judge  of  what 
is  and  what  is  not  God's  Word  in  the  Scriptures.  Not  only 
the  revelation  and  its  record,  but  the  history  and  its  record,  the 
whole  Scripture,  in  spirit  and  letter,  is  inspired. 

"To  us  the  Scriptures  are  God's  written  Word,  as  preach- 
ing is  the  spoken  Word;  and  this  written  Word,  though 
it  was,  and  must  and  should  be  thoroughly  tested  by  our 
poor  human  reason,  is  grasped  and  accepted  by  our  faith  as 
it  is,  and  as  above  us,  even  where  not  comprehended  by 
reason;   or     where     apparently     imperiled     by     the     momentary 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER   MARK      133 

consensus  of  a  modern  scientific  or  historical  scholarship. 
The  Scriptures  are  our  only  and  infallible  rule;  and  our 
rule  is  so  trustworthy,  and  our  faith  in  it  so  absolute  and  supreme 
that,  while  science  and  history  are  continuously  passing  away, 
we  know  by  faith  that  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass 
from  the  Scriptures  till  all  be   fulfilled." 

ON    CO-OPERATION    WITH    THE    GENERAL    SYNOD 

Long  before  the  Buffalo  Convention,  Dr.  Schmauk 
sought  to  establish  closer  relations  with  the  General 
Synod.  He  and  Dr.  Dunbar,  neighboring  pastors  in 
Lebanon,  strove  to  arrange  for  a  common  Graded  Series 
of  Sunday  School  Lessons  for  both  bodies.  Plans  were 
definitely  laid  by  them  for  such  a  possible  outcome  at 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Synod  in  1901  at  Dubuque, 
Iowa.  But  when  an  effort  was  made  by  the  Pacific 
Synod  to  establish  a  union  Theological  Seminary  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  the  General  Synod  later  at  Sunbury 
had  authorized  its  Board  of  Education  to  give  it  support 
"provided  the  confessional  basis  of  the  proposed  semi- 
nary conforms  to  that  of  the  General  Synod,"  he  felt 
that  the  time  had  come  to  get  clear  on  the  question  of 
confessional  subscription,  and  a  clear  statement  appears 
in  his  report  bearing  on  this  point. 

Dr.  Jacobs  was  accordingly  asked  to  prepare  theses, 
comparing  the  bases  of  faith  of  the  two  bodies.  Dr. 
Schmauk  believed  that  the  only  sure  way  of  getting 
closer  together  was  frankly  to  face  confessional  differ- 
ences. Calmly  but  firmly,  with  charity  toward  all  and 
malice  toward  none,  the  position  of  the  General  Council 
as  over  against  that  of  the  General  Synod,  with  whose 
history  its  own  had  been  much  interlinked,  was  stated 
in  so  thorough  and  admirable  a  manner  by  Dr.  Jacobs 
as  to  rank  among  the  finest  expositions  of  its  kind  ever 


134  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

made.  The  discussions  on  them  were  noted  both  for 
their  candor  and  their  irenic  spirit. 

It  was  a  trying  hour  for  Dr.  Keyser,  the  fraternal 
visitor  of  the  General  Synod,  and  a  delicate  mission  for 
him  to  fulfill.  But  the  President  saw  to  it  that  he  should 
be  given  every  opportunity  to  fulfill  it,  and  he  did  it 
with  great  credit.  With  so  much  confessional  electricity 
in  the  air,  it  was  dif^cult  to  discover  just  what  wires  it 
was  safe  to  touch;  but  Dr.  Keyser  knew  the  combina- 
tions well  and  won  to  himself  a  host  of  friends  and  ad- 
mirers. 

In  the  Lutheran  World  of  September  26,  1907,  Dr. 
Keyser  writes  as  follows : 

"President  Schmauk  knows  how  to  rush  business.  While  he 
is  uniformly  courteous  and  fair,  so  far  as  we  could  see,  he  knows 
how  to  'railroad'  (this  word  is  used  in  the  good  sense)  a  measure 
through  when  it  would  be  useless  to  spend  time  in  debating.  He 
has  quite  a  faculty  for  getting  rid  of  the  'adiaphora'  both  in 
business  and  in  doctrine.  Sometimes  he  cuts  ofif  a  member  a  little 
shortly,  but  we  suppose  the  members  of  the  General  Council  know 
him  to  be  so  large-hearted  and  generous  that  they  do  not  seem 
to  take  ofTense." 

He  then  continues: 

"No  doubt  General  Synod  readers  will  be  chiefly  concerned 
to  know  what  kind  of  a  reception  was  accorded  to  the  fraternal 
visitor  from  that  body.  We  can  truly  say  that  we  were  treated 
with  much  courtesy.  As  soon  as  there  was  a  little  breathing  spell 
in  the  business  after  our  arrival,  we  were  introduced  with  the 
kindliest  expressions  possible  by  the  pastor  loci.  Dr.  Kaehler, 
and  the  President,  Dr.  Schmauk,  and  by  a  hearty  vote  were  ac- 
corded the  privilege  of  the  floor  in  the  sessions.  Before  the  time 
for  our  fraternal  greetings  arrived,  a  stirring  question  involving 
the  General  Synod  arose,  when  Dr.  Schmauk  courteously  called 
upon  us  to  speak,  not  waiting  for  us  to  request  the  privilege  of 
giving  the  General  Synod's  side  of  the  case.     Afterwards,  when- 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER   MARK      135 

ever  a  matter  pertaining  to  the  General  Synod  arose,  the  Presi- 
dent called  upon  us  to  give  our  testimony.  Once  on  Tuesday, 
when  we  had  stepped  out  of  the  auditorium  into  the  church  par- 
lors for  a  few  minutes,  the  question  of  the  relation  of  the  General 
Synod  and  the  General  Council  came  up.  Dr.  Schmauk  sent  an 
urgent  message  for  us  to  come  at  once  into  the  main  room  to 
hear  and  take  part  in  the  discussion.  All  our  speeches  were 
listened  to  with  the  utmost  respect,  even  when  we  would  see 
signs  of  disagreement.  In  his  response  to  our  greetings  the 
president  paid  us  a  personal  tribute  that  we  modestly  felt  was 
quite  unmerited.  Indeed,  we  were  so  favorably  impressed  with 
the  spirituality,  earnestness,  scholarship  and  courtesy  of  the 
members  of  the  General  Council  that  we  could  not  help  feeling 
the  intensest  longing  that  there  might  be  the  utmost  friendliness, 
confidence  and  co-operation  between  that  body  and  the  General 
Synod. 

"You  may  rely  upon  it,  brethren,  that  this  was  one  of  the 
main  causes,  perhaps  the  main  cause,  of  the  difficulty.  It  was  those 
criticisms  on  the  Formula  of  Concord  that  created,  in  the  main, 
the  dubious  feeling,  and  that  among  the  leaders  of  the  General 
Council.  We  cite  this  incident  as  proof :  In  our  address  we 
expressed  strong  personal  appreciation  of  all  the  Symbols  of 
the  Church,  though  we  carefully  refrained  from  saying  that  we 
thought  all  of  them  ought  to  be  subscribed  to  confessionally. 
In  his  brief  and  apt  reply  to  our  address.  Dr.  Schmauk,  the 
President  of  the  General  Council,  declared  that  if  we  could  as- 
sure them  that  all  our  ministers  and  theologians  occupied  the 
same  friendly  attitude  toward  the  Church  Symbols,  'there  would 
be  no  trouble.'  That  one  sentence,  spoken  impromptu,  threw  a 
flood  of  light  on  the  situation.  The  fact  is,  it  told  the  whole 
story." 

The  distance  from  that  scene  to  another  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  in  1911,  when  the  General  Synod  brought 
its  confessional  basis  into  harmony  with  that  of  the 
General  Council  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  union 
in  1918,  was  not  great — even  if  a  little  tortuous.  Thus 
did  Buffalo,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Schmauk,  be- 


136  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

come  the  starting  point  for  the  journey  that  led  to  New 
York.  The  candor  that  faces  differences  instead  of 
conceaHng  them  is  the  only  true  friend  of  unity  and  con- 
cord. More  than  once  in  his  letters  did  Dr.  Schmauk 
express  himself  to  that  effect. 

ON    CO-OPERATION    WITH    OTHER    CHRISTIANS 

As  the  subject  of  co-operation  with  the  Federal  Coun- 
cil of  Churches  was  sprung  upon  him  during  the  bien- 
nium,  he  believed  it  wise  to  define  the  attitude  of  the 
General  Council  upon  this  question,  and  the  following 
statement  appears  in  his  report: 

"The  General  Council  bears  an  open  and  loving  and  helpful, 
not  a  closed,  attitude  toward  those  without,  i.  e.,  toward  those 
seeking  the  truth,  or  who  uphold  honest  convictions  in  the  fear 
of  God  and  with  uncorrupt  will.  It  is  the  nature  of  our  body 
to  be  patient,  bearing  all  things,  having  pleasure  in  approval 
rather  than  in  condemnation;  in  concord  rather  than  in  discord. 
The  first  of  our  Confessions— that  of  Augsburg — and  the  last, 
the  Form  of  Concord,  in  substance  and  tone,  and  our  own  his- 
tory, are  set  in  evidence  on  that  point.  We  are  willing  and 
anxious  to  co-operate  for  the  saving  of  souls  and  the  upbuilding 
of  Christ's  kingdom  with  all  of  God's  children  wheresoever  they 
be  found. 

"Yet  we  are  prevented  from  co-operating  if  thereby  an  injury 
is  done  to  our  conscience;  or  if  we  thereby  compromise  one  iota 
of  our  most  precious  treasure,  for  which  we  have  been  called 
into  existence;  a  treasure  which  is  blood-bought,  and  above  all 
price;  and  for  which  thousands  of  confessors  have  laid  down 
home,  friends,  worldly  success  and  life. 

"This  treasure  is  the  pure  doctrine  of  salvation.  With  those 
to  whom  the  purity  of  the  faith,  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus, 
means  much,  will  we  walk  up  to  the  point  where  both  conclude 
we  must  part.  But  with  those  to  whom  the  purity  of  the  faith 
means  little,  or  less  than  all— less  than  friendship,  blood,  practical 
success,  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  similar  considerations — we  are 
always  in  danger.     Our  chief  treasure  they  do  not  so  highly  re- 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER   MARK      137 

gard,  and  we  cannot  entrust  it  to  them  with  the  feeling  that  it 
is  safe.  They  place  other  things  on  a  par  with  this  treasure,  or 
above  it,  and  this  is  a  case  where  no  man  can  have  two  masters : 
for  either  he  will  hate  the  one,  and  love  the  other;  or  else  he 
will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other. 

"Since  we  exist  solely  for  the  sake  of  the  pure  Gospel  prin- 
ciple, and  all  other  things  are  subordinate,  even  our  best  friends 
without  (and  still  less  our  enemies)  cannot  ask  us  to  commit 
ourselves  to  association  with  any  people,  plan,  teachings,  or  tem- 
perament which  would  derogate  from  our  doctrine;  or  which 
would  convey  the  impression  to  the  wayfaring  man  that  we  have 
loosened  our  hold  and  relaxed  our  standard  of  the  truth. 

"Wherever  we  can  work  with  a  common  Christianity,  or  with 
a  common  Lutheranism,  with  the  assurance  that  no  harm,  im- 
mediate or  remote,  will  come  to  our  one  great  purpose  of  testi- 
mony to  the  truth,  or  to  our  integrity  of  conscience,  we  are  ready 
to  do  so  with  joy;  but  wherever  we  are  in  doubt  as  to  such  a 
happy  issue— and  we  must  be  our  own  judges— it  is  right  and 
reasonable  for  us  to  decline  to  run  any  risk  of  exposing  our 
highest  good  to  danger,  for  the  sake  of  attaining  a  lower  and  less 
important  good;  and  no  one  in  his  fair  and  honest  heart  can 
blame  us  for  failing  to  join  in  such  a  common  movement. 

"We  do  attach  the  greatest  importance  to  every  Word  of  God; 
but  we  do  not  attach  the  greatest  importance,  except  as  a  matter 
of  high  ideal,  effective  work,  and  wise  expediency,  to  unity  of  ex- 
ternal ecclesiastical  organization.  Our  unwillingness  to  co- 
operate with  others,  if  it  be  an  honest  and  conscientious  thing, 
is  not  to  be  taken  as  a  sign  of  dead  orthodoxy,  but  as  a  sign  of  a 
living  faith;  it  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  evidence  of  a  narrow 
outlook,  but  as  a  willingness  to  stand  by  one's  convictions;  it  is 
not  to  be  branded  as  a  love  of  denomination  or  of  Church  above 
Christ ;  but  is  to  be  respected  as  an  unswerving  loyalty  to  Christ 
and  His  truth  as  we  see  it. 

"If  this  be  true,  we  are  in  a  position  to  lay  down  a  safe  and 
impregnable  rule  for  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  General 
Council,  viz.,  'The  General  Council  can  co-operate  in  all  matters 
in  zi'hich  it  can  openly  apply  its  Fundajnental  Principles  of  Faith 
and  Polity  as  a  basis ;  and  only  in  these.' 

"That  this  quality  of  a  patient  and  open  mind  on  the  one  hand, 


138  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

and  a  firm  grasp  on  truth  on  the  other,  really  characterizes  the 
General  Council  may  be  seen  in  its  history." 

This  naturally  led  to  a  further  question  as  to  what 
was  involved  in  the  much-talked-of  fellowship  among 
Christians  of  different  shades  of  belief  and  a  further 
statement  is  made  on 

"THE   PRINCIPLE   OF    FELLOWSHIP" 

"Fellowship  is  a  far  more  intimate  thing  than  co-operation. 
Co-operation  is  a  combined  support  in  prosecution  of  a  business 
plan;  but  fellowship  is  a  life  together.  Co-operation  is  a  limited 
association  for  definite  ends ;  but  fellowship  is  an  unlimited  asso- 
ciation in  spiritual  life.  Fellowship  throws  open  all  the  doors, 
unlocks  all  the  strong  boxes,  and  bids  the  other  one  abide  in  our 
soul  and  heart. 

"Modern  Christianity  greatly  abuses  the  principle  of  fellow- 
ship; and  in  so  far  destroys  both  its  value  and  its  sacredness.  On 
the  grounds  of  a  broad  humanity  it  would  admit  even  those  to 
the  heart  of  the  Church  who  despise  the  precious  merits  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church. 

"Within  recent  years  it  has  become  customary  in  sectarian 
America  for  Christians  to  worship  God  on  certain  great  and 
public  occasions  in  common  with  those  who  deny  the  name  of 
Christ." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  large  and  far-reaching  ques- 
tions were  brought  to  the  fore  by  this  energetic  and 
broad-visioned  president — questions  that  gave  him  much 
thought  and  concern  and  that  later  absorbed  his  strength 
and  energies  to  such  an  extent  as  ultimately  to  lead 
him  to  a  premature  death.  He  opened  the  floodgates  at 
the  Buflfalo  Convention  and  was  carried  far  afield  in 
the  onrush  of  the  waters  in  his  endeavor  to  stem  the 
tide  and  hold  the  Council  true  to  its  faith  and  principles. 
SERIOUS  LOSSES  BY  DEATH 

Previous  to  the  meeting  of  the  Bufifalo  Council,  he 
was  called  upon  to  mourn  the  loss  by  death  of  his  mother, 


THE   CONFESSIONAL   HIGH-WATER    MARK      139 

who  had  passed  away  May  5,  1906.  This  left  a  void 
that  was  keenly  felt.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any  son 
at  his  age  could  have  leaned  more  confidingly  and  de- 
pendently  upon  a  mother  than  did  he.  What  she  was 
to  him,  he  gave  expression  to  under  "Sunday  School 
Notes"  in  The  Lutheran  in  the  following  words: 

"SUNDAY  SCHOOL  NOTES" 

"In  memory  of  a  mother,  who  received  with  meekness  the 
Word  of  God,  not  as  the  word  of  men,  but  as  it  is  in  truth  the 
Word  of  God,  which  is  able  to  save  our  souls;  who  taught  and 
trained  as  only  a  mother  can  train  and  teach  out  of  the  love 
of  her  own  heart  and  in  the  continuous  sacrifice  of  her  own  life ; 
and  on  whom  her  children  leaned  heavily  to  the  end,  for  strength 
in  fidelity  to  the  old  Gospel  and  to  duty,  for  fearlessness  in  dan- 
ger, caution  in  difficulties,  patience  in  trial,  comfort  in  weakness, 
and  for  counsel  and  welcome  in  every  hour.  Good  mother,  who 
hast  listened  and  loved  and  clung  with  all  thy  soul  to  them  whom 
God  gave  unto  thee,  thou  art  more  than  books  to  the  preacher, 
more  than  colleges  to  the  student,  more  than  teacher  and  systems 
of  education  to  the  child.  Thy  love  is  the  shelter  and  covert 
for  the  most  precious  blossoms  and  the  most  tender  growing 
vines  of  a  godly  life.  Thou  art  more  than  all  the  world,  with 
its  vain  ambition^  and  idle  honors,  to  the  memory  and  heart 
that  looks  up  into  the  sunshine  of  thy  Qiristly  countenance. 

T.  E.  S." 

Serious  losses  to  the  General  Council  had  also  oc- 
curred. Among  them  was  the  death  of  his  father's  most 
intimate  friend.  Dr.  Krotel,  on  whom  he  had  counted  to 
furnish  reminiscences  at  Buffalo  of  the  events  leading 
up  to  the  organization  of  the  General  Council.  The 
prominent  part  he  took  as  head  of  the  Pennsylvania 
delegation  and  as  a  conspicuous  leader  in  the  later  his- 
tory of  the  General  Council  is  noted  appreciatingly  in 
Dr.  Schmauk's  report.  A  second  loss  was  that  of  his 
genial  friend  and  neighbor,  Dr.  Schantz,  of  Myerstown ; 


140  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

a  third,  that  of  the  respected  and  revered  Dr.  Repass; 
a  fourth,  that  of  the  widely  known  Dr.  Geissinger,  whose 
charming,  sunny  disposition  had  won  for  him  a  host 
of  admiring  friends;  a  fifth,  that  of  Dr.  Wm.  Ashmead 
Schaeffer,  "a  true  scion  of  an  illustrious  ancestry."  It 
is  needless  to  say  that  these  losses  weighed  heavily  on 
his  mind.     All  of  them  were  props  he  had  leaned  upon. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
Administrative  Problems 

"Our  century  is  the  age  of  organised  movetmnts.  There  is  a 
society  to  'promote'  nearly  every  cause  under  the  sun.  But  it  is 
still  a  question  whether  in  the  aggregate  our  great  'systems'  of 
activity  do  not  absorb  more  precious  vitality  than  they  emit.  The 
words  of  the  sage  of  Concord  are  ivorth  pondering:  'We  shall 
one  day  see  that  the  most  private  is  the  most  public  energy,  that 
quality  atones  for  quantity,  and  grarideur  of  character  acts  in  the 
dark  and  succors  them  ivho  never  saw  it.'  " — Schmauk. 

DR.  SCHMAUK  was  not  long  in  discovering  that 
if  the  General  Council  were  to  be  more  than 
a  loose  and  inefficient  confederation,  it  must 
function  as  a  strong  administrative  unit.  From  the 
Swedish  point  of  view,  who  desired  it  to  be  a  federation 
with  advisory  powers  only,  this  would  have  continued 
to  be  impossible.  The  field  of  common  interests  would 
have  been  so  very  much  contracted  as  to  rob  the  Council 
of  all  administrative  and  unifying  power.  This  spirit 
and  tendency  within  the  body  had  the  effect  of  arraying 
the  interests  of  the  Council  against  those  of  synods  and 
boards  and  to  make  the  former  a  sort  of  fifth  wheel  in 
the  wagon.  It  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Swedes, 
but  was  fostered  and  encouraged  by  prominent  leaders 
in  other  sections  of  the  general  body.  Through  their 
influence,  the  boards  and  other  agencies  functioned  more 
or  less  independently  and  became  a  law  unto  themselves. 
This  caused  the  President  an  endless  amount  of  anxiety 
and  thrust  upon  him  much  unrequited  labor.  He  was 
far  from  believing  in  centralized  power.  The  mania 
for  mere  organization  never  appealed  to  him.     But  he 


142  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

felt  the  need  of  a  deeper  sense  of  General  Council  cath- 
olicity and  solidarity.  He  did  not  want  this  body,  with 
an  honorable  history  behind  it,  to  be  regarded  as  a  tem- 
porary makeshift  until  it  should  be  ready  to  lose  its 
identity  in  a  new  alignment  of  Lutheran  forces  in  the 
country. 

In  a  letter  addressed  in  1911  to  a  layman,  who  favored 
greater  solidarity,  he  quotes  a  leading  member  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Ministerium  who  wrote : 

Our  people  must  not  be  so  drawn  to  Council  work  as  to  neglect 
our  Ministerium's  present  obligations.  That  is  the  danger  in  cer- 
tain centres.  We  must  fight  for  our  own  educational  claims  in 
such  centres  as  Philadelphia  and  Lancaster.  Our  Home  Mission 
work,  necessary  as  it  is,  is  always  pressing  others  to  the  wall. 
We  need  a  larger  balance  and  a  better  adjustment  of  all  our 
work.  In  addition,  let  us  be  careful  lest  our  enthusiastic  brethren 
bring  about  the  elimination  of  the  Scandinavians  from  the  Council. 

He  then  comtnents  on  it  in  the  following  vein : 

This  principle  to  my  mind  will  paralyze  the  progress  of  a  whole 
generation.  If  we  are  to  work  in  any  large  way  through  the 
General  Council,  we  must  value  and  build  up  its  organization. 
To  cherish  it  merely  as  an  idea,  to  be  dropped  by  and  by,  is  to 
go  back  into  primitive  helplessness.  There  need  be  no  fears, 
if  the  time  should  come  for  a  united  Lutheran  Church  in  America, 
that  a  strong  organization  of  the  General  Council  would  prevent 
that.  It  would  not  prevent,  but  would  further  such  a  consum- 
mation, when  the  time  is  ripe. 

A  spirit  such  as  this  opens  the  door  to  destructive  work  by 
selfish  interests,  in  very  great  crises.  We  cannot  command  the  loy- 
alty of  our  own  best  followers  in  a  crisis.  That  is  what  worries  me. 

It  did  worry  him  beyond  measure ;  for  he  felt  that 
what  made  other  Lutheran  bodies  so  strong  and  efificient 
was  the  sense  of  unity  and  the  spirit  of  loyalty — ^the 
very  thing  that  was  lacking  in  the  General  Council,  shot 
through  as  it  was  with  sectionalism  and   individualism. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  143 

What  did  much  to  encourage  the  sectional  and  divi- 
sional spirit  in  the  General  Council  was  the  low-church, 
or  congregational,  conception  of  Church  polity  which 
was  advocated  by  leading  teachers  in  the  Council.  To 
him  it  seemed  as  if  they  left  little  room  for  "the  general 
conception  of  the  Lutheran  Church  as  a  church;  and 
that  we  are  reduced  to  the  two  extremes  of  a  local  in- 
dividual body  called  the  congregation,  and  the  general 
assembly  of  all  believers,  or  invisible  Church,  called  the 
Church."  He  so  writes  to  Dr.  Krotel  in  1905,  before 
the  meeting  of  the  Milwaukee  Council.    He  further  says  : 

"The  independence,  and  independent  rights,  and  inde- 
pendent liberties  of  a  single  local  visible  Christian  con- 
gregation, as  over  against  the  common  consent  of  the 
churches  of  the  same  faith,  duly  and  lawfully  obtained, 
do  not  seem  to  me  to  have  a  just  existence."  While 
admitting  that  the  Christian  congregation  is  the  primal 
and  abiding  unity,  he  insists  that  the  larger  governmental 
unity  of  a  general  organization,  which  represents  the 
local  congregations,  also  has  a  place  in  the  divine  econ- 
omy which  often  receives  scant  recognition.  In  this 
same  letter,  which  is  of  considerable  length,  he  proceeds 
to  show  that  the  Confessions  use  the  word  "Church,"  not 
only  to  designate  "the  invisible  body  of  Christ"  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  local  congregation  on  the  other,  but  also  as 
a  term  applying  to  a  visible  body  of  saints  united  in 
the  same  confession  for  the  fulfillment  of  a  common  mis- 
sion. He  quotes  from  the  Confessions  language  which 
hardly  leaves  any  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of  his 
contention,  and  then  concludes  with  these  words : 

Now,  my  dear  Doctor,  I  feel  that  the  future  of  the  General 
Council   Lutheran   Church   in  this   country,   in  view  of  the  close 


144  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

association  of  so  many  different  nationalities,  each  of  whom  is 
inclined  to  local  individualism  and  independence,  not  for  the  sake 
of  preserving  the  Gospel,  but  from  racial  prejudice,  depends  much 
more  on  a  proper  upholding  of  our  right  to  the  use  of  the 
general  term  than  it  does  upon  our  attempting  to  guard  against 
the  concentration  into  external  ecclesiastical  power  at  the  top,  or 
the  magnifying  of  a  general  external  organization. 

This  is  sufficient  to  explain  why  Dr.  Schmauk  all 
through  his  presidential  career  favored  more  power  for 
the  General  Council  as  such  and  less  for  its  boards,  com- 
mittees, and  voluntary  agencies  not  under  the  direct 
control  of  the  general  body.  He  insisted  that  the  latter 
must  do  obeisance  to  the  former  and  not  the  former  to 
the  latter. 

ON    MEN'S    AND    WOMEN'S    ORGANIZATIONS 

As  is  well  known.  Dr.  Schmauk  was  not  keen  for 
men's  or  women's  organizations  that  functioned  more 
or  less  independently,  and  were  liable  to  withdraw  in- 
terest and  energy  away  from  the  constituted  and  author- 
ized agencies  of  the  Church.  He  was  opposed  to  move- 
ments that  were  not  properly  adjusted  to  the  organized 
Church's  machinery  and  believed  them  to  be  parasitic  in 
character,  dissipating  and  diverting  much  energy  that 
could  be  used  to  good  purpose  were  it  applied  to  exist- 
ing agencies  under  the  direction  of  Synod  or  Council. 
When  before  the  meeting  of  the  Minneapolis  Convention 
in  1909  several  active  and  trusted  laymen  suggested  the 
organization  of  a  Laymen's  Union,  he  pointed  out  the 
difficulties  that  must  be  encountered  and  met  if  it  were 
to  function  to  advantage.  1.  Some  ministers  and  synods 
would  hardly  be  prepared  for  it.  2.  The  laity  might 
thus  become  divided  and  it  would  become  a  party  move- 
ment.   3.  "For  the  sake  of  making  the  organization  gen- 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  145 

eral,  the  more  volatile  element  of  the  laity  would  prob- 
ably have  to  be  drawn  in,"  but  could  not  be  depended 
on  for  solid  work,  and  "after  an  initial  flare  up  it  might 
fall  away  into  decline  and  dissolution." 

He  then  suggests  that  a  canvass  might  be  made  of 
the  whole  situation  to  ascertain  where  the  most  reliable 
lay  material  is,  but  believes  it  to  be  best  to  "go  half  way 
ill  the  matter  at  Minneapolis,"  to  discuss  the  situation 
at  a  laymen's  meeting  and  ask  the  Council  to  appoint  a 
"standing  committee  on  laymen's  work,  with  authority 
to  secure  information  on  the  subject  from  all  synods  in 
the  Council."  Then  he  concludes  with  a  statement  which 
shows  how  clear  was  his  insight  with  regard  to  organi- 
zations loosely  formed  in  their  relation  to  the  organized 
Church  itself. 

The  Lutheran  Church  is  a  Church  which  makes  each  congre- 
gation the  center  of  authority,  and  by  our  general  organizations, 
such  as  the  Women's  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  or 
the  Luther  League  who  attempt  to  organize  local  centers  in  con- 
gregations, which  are  not  in  living  touch  with  the  congregation 
itself  and  its  Church  Council,  are  introducing  a  species  of  gen- 
eral machinery  which  in  time  is  almost  sure  to  come  into  clash 
with  the  machinery  which  the  genius  and  spirit  of  our  Church 
recognizes.  Here  is  still  an  unsolved  problem  in  the  Church, 
how  to  secure  an  easy  diffusion  of  the  general  movement  with  a 
complete  recognition  of  the  autonomy  of  the  individual  congre- 
gation. It  is  a  question  in  Church  polity,  and  one  which  will 
ultimately  bring  much  blessedness  or  much  woe  to  the  Lutheran 
Church. 

His  report  at  the  Minneapolis  Convention  shows  that 
he  was  not  opposed  to  a  Laymen's  organization  but  fa- 
vored it,  only  he  wanted  it  to  be  rightly  lodged  or  rooted 
into  the  organized  Church  itself.  As  he  writes  to  an- 
other layman,  "What  we  need  to  do  is  to  make  it  the 
organ  of  the  actual  work  of  the  Council,  and  not  to  let 
K 


146  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

it  fly  away  on  the  wings  of  sentiment."  Because  of  his 
fear  that  movements  born  of  mere  enthusiasm  and  sen- 
timent might  prove  to  be  out  of  joint  with  the  properly 
constituted  agencies  of  the  Church,  he  was  often  mis- 
understood and  spoken  of  as  opposed  to  Laymen's  or- 
ganizations. But  the  laymen  who  consulted  with  him 
always  found  him  ready  to  favor  any  movement  that 
gave  promise  of  being  orderly  and  serviceable  because 
rightly  connected  with  the  Church's  machinery. 

DR.  SCHMAUK  AND  THE  WOMAN'S  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 

This  fear  of  organizations  not  properly  correlated 
with  the  work  of  the  organized  Church  caused  Dr. 
Schmauk  to  be  regarded  as  opposed  to  the  Woman's 
Missionary  Society.  It  is  well  known  that  he  was  by 
no  means  hostile  to  the  Society  as  such,  but  often  felt 
that  some  of  its  leaders  were  not  inclined  to  adjust  their 
workings  and  methods  to  the  constituted  order  of  the 
Church.  The  enthusiasm  for  a  great,  all-inclusive 
national  body,  with  many  ambitious  and  far-reaching 
schemes  that  could  never  be  realized  as  a  goal  to  strive 
after,  made  him  regard  the  Society  as  not  a  functioning 
part  of  the  Church,  but  independent,  one  that  would  pre- 
vent real  cohesion  and  militate  against  regularity.  A 
spirit  of  disloyalty  to  the  General  Council  seemed  to 
him  to  be  fostered  by  some,  and  he  distrusted  the  Society 
not  knowing  whether  it  might  be  led  in  its  zeal  to  im- 
port ideas  and  methods  foreign  to  the  spirit  and  Hfe  of 
Lutheranism. 

As  later  events  proved,  the  misunderstandings  that 
arose  were  due  chiefly  to  a  failure  to  confer  and  co- 
operate. When  contact  was  once  established  between 
the  President  of  the  General  Council  and  officials  in  the 
Society,  it  was  found  that  the   former  responded  most 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  147 

cheerfully  and  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  work  of  the 
Society.     Confidence   was   restored,   because  it  became 
evident  that  the  Society  was  not  disposed  to  be  a  law 
unto  itself  but  was  ready  to  co-operate  with  the  officials 
of  the  Church.     The  tide  turned  in  1916,  when  the  situ- 
ation was  reviewed  by  the  two  officials  of  the  Council 
and   of    the    Society   of   the    Pennsylvania    Ministerium 
and  a  proper  co-operative  relationship  established.  Under 
the  leadership  of  Dr.  W.  D.  C.  Keiter  this  relation  of 
co-ordination  is  now  a  settled  policy  in  The  United  Luth- 
eran Church,  whose  constitution  has  been  made  to  ex- 
press what  shall  be  the  limitations  and  functions  of  socie- 
ties and  agencies   connected  with  that  body.     Not  the 
slightest    friction    or    misunderstanding    occurred    when 
once  the  principle  was  settled,  that  any  society  profess- 
ing to  do  service  in  the  Church  must  place  itself  in  a 
position  where  it  can  function  as  a  part  of  the  Church 
if  its  usefulness  is  not  to  be  impaired.    When  once  proper 
co-ordination   was   established   Dr.    Schmauk   advocated 
the  presence  of  women  at  the  meetings  of  the  Mission 
Boards  and  thus  paved  the  way  for  hearty  co-operation 
and  the  removal  of  misunderstandings.     That  achieve- 
ment has  been  handed  down  as  a  legacy  to  The  United 
Lutheran  Church  as  its  constitution  amply  attests. 
DR.  SCHMAUK  AND  THE  GERMANS 
As  President  of  the  General  Council,   Dr.   Schmauk 
realized  from  the  very  beginning  that  there  was  a  Ger- 
man  problem    of    considerable   magnitude    pressing    for 
solution.     The  German  communicant  membership  of  the 
Council  formed  about  one-fifth  of  the  entire  body.    The 
New  York  Ministerium,  the  Canada  and  Manitoba  Syn- 
ods,   the    Philadelphia    German    Conference,    together 
with    several    groups    in    the    Pittsburgh    Synod,    rep- 


148  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

resented  a  considerable  German  constituency  whose 
varied  needs  had  to  be  taken  into  serious  account.  Un- 
like the  Augustana,  Iowa  and  other  Western  Synods, 
there  was  no  common  college  or  seminary  from  which 
an  adequate  ministry  for  the  preaching  of  the  Word 
to  many  thousands  of  German  Lutherans  who  were  as 
sheep  without  a  shepherd  could  be  recruited.  The  only 
college  was  Wagner  College,  supported  by  the  New 
York  Ministerium  and  drawing  its  students  almost  ex- 
clusively from  that  body.  The  Philadelphia  Seminary, 
while  it  always  had  one  or  two  German  professors,  and 
others  who  were  familiar  with  the  German  language, 
fell  far  short  of  attracting  a  sufficient  number  of  Ger- 
man students  to  meet  even  the  most  imperative  needs 
of  the  mission  situation.  Hence  mission  work  on  any 
scale  commensurate  with  the  opportunities  and  respon- 
sibilities of  the  Council  was  out  of  the  question ;  and 
but  for  the  aggressive  mission  work  of  other  Lutheran 
bodies,  the  story  of  the  Lutheran  Church's  marvelous 
growth  resulting  from  the  ingathering  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  German  immigrants  in  the  eighties  and 
nineties  would  have  read  far  differently. 

Separated  as  the  German  Synods  and  German  groups 
within  the  other  synods  were,  and  without  a  common 
church  paper  as  a  bond  and  medium  of  communication, 
there  was  a  lack  of  cohesion  among  them  which  made 
the  undertaking  of  any  big  task  for  missionary  expan- 
sion impossible.  Because  of  inevitable  differences  of 
tastes  and  tendencies,  which  reflected  the  peculiarities  of 
Lutheran  thought  and  life  in  the  various  sections  of 
Germany  from  which  the  large  immigrations  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  came,  and  which  them- 
selves were  differentiated  from  the  older  German  popu- 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  149 

lations  in  America,  unity  and  solidarity  of  action  among 
them  was  rendered  exceedingly  difficult.  The  parochial 
and  provincial  spirit  was  quite  pronounced  among  them, 
and  the  witty  remark  of  Dr.  Mann  that  "where  there 
are  five  Germans  you  can  expect  six  different  opinions" 
was  not  altogether  without  justification,  though  it  would 
have  applied  with  almost  equal  truth  to  some  more 
native  American  elements  within  the  General  Council 
where  individualism  was  much  in  evidence.  The  four 
or  more  different  German  church  papers  abundantly  evi- 
denced this  lack  of  unity  and  solidarity. 

Dr.  Schmauk  soon  acquired  an  intelligent  grasp  of  the 
situation  and  entered  into  sympathetic  relations  with  the 
German  brethren,  studying  with  them  their  problems 
and  working  with  them  toward  their  solution.  His  con- 
ferences with  such  men  as  Dr.  Spaeth,  Dr.  Berkemeier 
(German  Secretary  of  the  General  Council),  Revs.  Dr. 
Hoffmann  of  the  Canada  Synod,  Reinhold  Tappert  of 
the  New  York  Ministerium,  Adolph  Hellwege  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Ministerium,  and  many  others  became  so 
numerous  as  to  make  heavy  drains  upon  his  time  and 
energy.  Like  Dr.  Krotel,  he  understood  the  German 
nature,  appreciated  its  sturdy  inner  strength,  and  knew 
how  to  weld  together  elements  which  at  times  seemed 
hopelessly  separated. 

It  was  in  the  decade  beginning  with  1880,  that  Luth- 
erans from  the  various  sections  of  Germany  kept  pour- 
ing into  the  United  States  by  the  hundred  thousand, 
many  of  them  repopulating  New  England.  The  need 
of  missionaries  to  gather  them  into  the  Church  became 
acute.  As  the  Philadelphia  Seminary  could  not  begin 
to  furnish  a  sufficient  number  of  German  pastors  to  mis- 
sionate  in   New   England  and   Canada,  most  promising 


150  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

fields  were  left  untouched  or  were  taken  in  charge  by 
Missouri  and  other  Lutheran  bodies.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances, it  was  natural  that  parts  of  the  Church  in 
Germany  should  follow  the  Lutheran  emigration  to 
America  and  endeavor  to  supply  a  ministry  for  them. 
Then  arose  the  vexed  question  as  to  the  advisability  of 
importing  German  pastors  who  did  not  take  at  least  a 
part  of  their  Seminary  course  in  the  Philadelphia  Semi- 
nary so  as  to  become  more  intimately  acquainted  with 
American  Church  life  and  conditions,  and  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  the  English  language. 

As  the  Kropp  Seminary  had,  under  the  leadership  of 
its  head,  Pastor  Paulsen,  furnished  from  year  to  year 
a  considerable  number  of  pastors  and  missionaries, 
many  of  them  quite  able  and  self-sacrificing,  there  arose 
considerable  misunderstanding  and  soon  the  Council  had 
on  its  hands  a  delicate  and  perplexing  Kropp  question. 
As  they  were  not  made  to  feel  at  home  among  their 
German  brethren,  due  to  the  difference  of  opinion  as 
to  the  necessity  of  pastors  spending  at  least  one  year 
at  the  Philadelphia  Seminary,  much  ill-feeling  was  en- 
gendered and  not  a  few  of  them  drifted  into  the  Iowa, 
Ohio  and  Missouri  Synods.  Much  ground  was  lost  to 
the  General  Council  in  Western  Canada  on  the  territory 
of  the  Manitoba  Synod,  and  rich  mission  fields  in  New 
England  that  would  have  added  much  to  the  strength 
of  the  Council  were  neglected  in  consequence. 

Here  was  a  question  which  at  once  engaged  all  the 
wisdom  and  resourcefulness  of  the  President  of  the 
Council  and  at  much  expense  of  thought  and  energy 
he  set  to  work  a  policy  that  would  tend  to  harmonize 
existing  differences.  He  saw  the  need  of  a  bond  of  union 
among  the  Germans  all  the  more  because  of  what  the 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  151 

Swedes  were  able  to  accomplish  in  their  united  strength. 
The  same  ability  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the 
Swedes  and  see  things  from  their  point  of  view  was 
shown  in  Dr.  Schmauk's  dealings  with  the  Germans  in 
the  General  Council.  He  could  grasp  situations  and  con- 
ditions remote  from  his  immediate  environment  with  re- 
markable good  sense  and  intelligence.  His  open  mind 
and  genuine  sympathy  enabled  him  to  get  at  the  heart 
of  a  problem  or  difficulty,  and  to  view  things  from  all 
sides  without  prejudice  and  with  the  single  purpose  to 
reconcile  differences  on  the  basis  of  truth  and  justice. 
He  acquainted  himself  with  relations  and  conditions  so 
thoroughly  as  to  astonish  many  who  should  have  been 
in  a  position  to  know  more  and  better  than  he.  He  was 
patient  and  conciliatory,  and  when  he  arrived  at  a  con- 
clusion, he  could  present  it  in  so  convincing  a  manner 
as  to  win  fullest  confidence  and  assent. 

In  1907  Pastor  Paulsen,  the  leading  spirit  of  Kropp 
Seminary,  came  to  America  in  behalf  of  the  institution 
and  paid  the  President  of  the  General  Council  a  visit. 
He  was  deeply  impressed  with  Dr.  Schmauk's  person- 
ality, and  in  his  description  of  his  visit  in  the  Seminary's 
Anzeiger  speaks  of  him  as  a  "remarkably  gifted  and 
well-informed  clergyman  and  theologian."     He  says: 

Two  hours  did  I  spend  with  the  President  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil discussing  with  him  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  The  highly 
interesting  views  he  expressed  accorded  with  my  own  in  every 
respect.  He  is  gifted  with  a  wonderful  memory.  He  recalled  a 
sermon  he  heard  me  preach  in  Dr.  Spaeth's  pulpit,  but  of  which 
I  could  not  remember  a  single  word.  When  he  reproduced  it  in 
substance,  I  said  to  myself,  "Yes,  that's  my  sermon." 

It  was  when  Pastor  Paulsen  was  welcomed  to  Dr. 
Spaeth's  pulpit   (for  Dr.  Spaeth  was  one  among  not  a 


152  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

few  who  contended  that  students  for  the  German  min- 
istry should  have  at  least  part  of  their  training  in  the 
Philadelphia  Seminary)  and  when  later  he  paid  a  visit 
to  Dr.  Schmauk,  that  the  way  was  prepared  for  the 
solution  of  a  vexed  problem. 

The  need  of  greater  solidarity  among  the  Germans 
grew  upon  him,  and  he,  in  co-operation  with  the  Ger- 
man Secretary,  Dr.  Berkemeier,  and  Dr.  Spaeth,  ar- 
ranged to  have  the  Buffalo  Convention  appoint  a  com- 
mittee to  issue  a  call  for  a  German  Conference  to  be 
held  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  the  following  year,  1908.  Pre- 
vious to  this,  Dr.  Berkemeier  had  spent  a  night  with 
Rev.  Reinhold  Tappert,  then  pastor  in  Meriden,  Con- 
necticut, and  the  entire  Kropp  situation  was  thoroughly 
reviewed.  Dr.  Schmauk  was  made  fully  acquainted  with 
the  facts  and  the  difficulties,  and  at  once  marshalled  the 
German  brethren  in  line  for  the  holding  of  the  confer- 
ence. It  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  the  German  work  of  the  General  Council. 
Old  things  passed  rapidly  away  and  all  things  bore  the 
promise  of  becoming  new.  During  the  years  that  fol- 
lowed, an  enormous  correspondence  was  carried  on  by 
the  President  with  many  of  the  German  brethren  which 
reveals  how  complete  was  his  mastery  of  the  situation 
and  how  unbounded  the  confidence  these  brethren  re- 
posed in  their  counselor  and  friend. 

At  the  Minneapolis  Convention  in  1909,  he  reports 
as  follows: 

I  draw  attention  to  the  element  of  hopefulness  and  the  spirit  of 
unity  which  have  entered  into  the  German  work  of  the  General 
Council,  and  to  the  period  of  constructive  development  with  which 
the  German  Church  may  be  able  to  enter,  for  the  ultimate  benefit 
of  the  whole  General  Council  Church,  if  the  Council  will  sup- 
port and  strengthen  their  hands. 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  153 

For  the  first  time  in  a  generation,  our  Germans  are  thoroughly 
united  in  sentiment,  purpose  and  plan,  and  this  in  harmony  with 
the  work  that  obtains  in  the  English  and  Scandinavian  parts  of 
the  Council.  This  situation  is  largely  the  result  of  the  German 
Conference  held  last  fall  at  Rochester  and  opened  with  a  ser- 
mon by  Dr.  Spaeth  on  I  Cor.  1 :10. 

The  Conference  asks  Council  to  found  a  German  official  organ, 
which  they  will  support,  commends  the  work  of  Wagner  College 
and  recommends  that  the  General  Council  enter  mto  official  rela- 
tion with  the  Theological  Seminary  in  Kropp,  Germany.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  New  York  Ministerium  has  elected  Dr. 
Offermann,  a  graduate  of  Kropp,  and  a  member  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Ministerium,  as  its  professor  in  its  Theological  Seminary. 
The  Council  has  a  rare  opportunity  before  it  of  setting  forward 
a  work  which  otherwise  may  never  be  accomplished. 

Thus  a  happy  solution  to  a  vexed  problem  was  effected 
that  resulted  later  in  the  sending  of  Prof.  Dr.  C.  T. 
Benze  to  the  Kropp  Seminary  to  represent  the  General 
Council  as  its  American  teacher.  When  The  United  Luth- 
eran Church  was  formed,  through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  E. 
F.  Bachman,  who  went  to  Germany  as  commissioner, 
the  union  of  the  Kropp  and  Breklum  Seminaries  was 
consummated,  which  was  designed  to  furnish  German 
pastors  for  greatly  enlarged  needs  should  the  expected 
emigration  from  Germany  take  place  as  a  result  of  the 
late  war. 

The  aUgnment  of  the  German  forces  in  the  General 
Council  had  put  new  life  into  the  German  synods  con- 
nected with  the  Council,  of  which  the  projected  Semi- 
nary at  Saskatoon,  Canada,  is  a  hopeful  augury  and  evi- 
dence. When  the  fruits  of  this  union  of  forces  shall 
'have  become  more  fully  apparent,  no  name  will  be  held 
in  more  grateful  remembrance  among  the  German  breth- 
ren of  the  former  Council  than  that  of  the  trusted 
and     beloved     Dr.     Schmauk.       He     was     their     great 


154  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

champion  in  the  Council  and  in  The  United  Lutheran 
Church,  and  his  loss  was  most  keenly  felt  by  them 
when  they  looked  in  vain  for  another  like  champion  at 
the  Washington  Convention  in  1920. 

WATERLOO  SEMINARY 

For  some  years,  the  German  Canada  Synod  felt  the 
need  of  a  seminary  for  the  training  of  a  ministry  within 
its  own  bounds.  The  young  men  who  were  educated  at 
Wagner  College  and  Mt.  Airy  Seminary,  as  a  rule,  failed 
to  return  to  do  service  in  Canada,  and  in  1910  the  de- 
cision was  reached  by  this  synod,  in  co-operation  with 
the  English  Synod  of  Central  Canada,  to  establish  such  a 
school.  The  intention  at  first  was  to  locate  it  in  Toronto 
and  connect  it  with  Toronto  University,  so  that  its  stu- 
dents might  have  the  benefit  of  a  thorough  collegiate 
course. 

No  sooner  had  Dr.  Schmauk  learned  of  this  purpose 
than  he  began  to  feel  a  sense  of  uneasiness  concerning 
the  project,  and  on  two  grounds.  First,  the  mode  of 
procedure  was  not  orderly.  The  matter  had  not  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  General  Council  which 
must  needs  be  vitally  interested  in  the  establishment  of 
a  seminary  within  its  jurisdiction.  Second,  was  it  wise 
to  connect  a  Lutheran  Seminary  with  a  non-Lutheran 
university?  After  some  correspondence  with  Dr.  Hoff- 
mann, one  of  the  prime  movers  and  supporters  of  the 
project  (and  now  president  of  the  Seminary  that  was 
then  in  prospect),  a  conference  was  arranged  to  be  held 
at  Buffalo,  where  it  was  agreed  that  its  establishment 
should  be  delayed  until  the  General  Council  should  have 
given  it  sanction. 

His  clear  foresight  and  his  instinct  for  orderly  pro- 
cedure are   fully  apparent  in  two  papers  addressed   to 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  155 

the  brethren  interested  in  the  proposed  seminary.  In 
the  one,  he  calls  attention  to  the  need  of  co-ordination 
so  as  to  conserve  all  the  German  interests  in  the  Council 
and  bring  them  into  unity.  He  states  that  but  recently 
certain  relations  with  Kropp  Seminary  had  been  entered 
into  and  pleads  that  for  unity's  sake  the  two  interests 
be  properly  harmonized.  "You  can  readily  imagine  the 
worry  that  the  officers  of  the  General  Council  have  had, 
when  they  have  received  no  word  of  tidings  of  any  kind 
as  to  this  movement  except  what  is  reported  in  the 
papers."  Then  follow  a  number  of  pertinent  questions 
which  go  to  the  heart  of  the  matter  and  call  for  a  clear 
answer. 

The  other  paper  is  addressed  to  the  Canada  Synod, 
after  he  has  become  convinced  that  a  Seminary  is  needed. 
But  he  gives  cogent  reasons  why  it  should  not  be  located 
in  Toronto  and  connected  with  the  University. 

"Your  Synod  has  always  been  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  sound 
Confessionalism  in  the  General  Council." — "You  have  been  op- 
posed to  secret  societies.  You  have  stood  against  unionism,  union 
evangelical  work,  and  all  interdenominational  forms  of  a  com- 
mon American  Christianity  in  which  our  Lutheran  doctrine  was 
washed  away  or  blunted." — "My  fear  is  not  for  this  generation, 
but  for  your  own  sons  on  your  own  soil,  whom  you  are  about 
to  train  up  in  connection  with  a  large  university,  where  the  union- 
istic  forms  of  a  common  Christianity  are  almost  sure  to  be  recog- 
nized, and  where  the  hearts  of  the  young  men  will  be  almost  sure 
to  soften  down  favorably  towards  them.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the 
common  Interdenominational  Missionary  Societies,  the  common 
forms  of  Christian  Endeavor,  in  our  modern  university  life, 
have  their  use  as  over  against  unbelief  and  immorality  in  uni- 
versity circles,  but  our  Lutheran  students  cannot  enter  into  alli- 
ances or  relations-hips  with  this  common  Christian  life  in  the 
universities  without  the  greatest  danger  of  weakening  their 
Lutheran  principles." 


156  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

He  advises  the  German  and  English  brethren  to  weigh 
well  this  important  matter  before  deciding  upon  a  loca- 
tion and  warns  them  against  the  danger  of  the  rational- 
ism of  such  men  as  MacFayden  in  the  University.  He 
concludes  with  these  words : 

The  English  Church  is  under  a  greater  strain  than  the  Ger- 
man in  standing  out  for  a  sound  Lutheranism.  It  is  more  tempted 
to  imitate  and  follow  the  lead  of  the  other  Protestant  denomina- 
tions. Its  young  men  and  its  students  are  under  the  greatest 
temptation  to  get  ideas  and  convictions  during  their  college  and 
university  career  which  weaken  their  hold  on  a  genuine  Lutheran 
practice.  If  our  German  and  English  brethren  in  Canada  can 
unite  in  training  up  a  generation  of  German  and  English  pastors 
in  which  both  the  English  and  the  Germans  shall  be  sound  on 
the  Four  Points  of  the  General  Council,  and  shall  stand  faithfully 
against  the  denominations  around  them,  they  will  be  accomplish- 
ing a  most  glorious  work,  and  one  in  which  the  General  Council 
should  ever  take  the  greatest  pride.  Be  certain  before  you  start 
that  your  safeguards  are  such  that  your  young  men  will  not 
gravitate  downward  toward  the  level  of  the  common  American 
Protestantism. 

A  letter  to  him  from  Dr.  Hofifmann,  dated  April  10, 
1911,  shows  that  the  latter,  though  a  resident  of  Toronto, 
was  in  complete  accord  with  him  and  advocated  strongly 
the  populous  Lutheran  center  of  Berlin  and  Waterloo 
as  the  proper  location.  The  General  Council  at  Lancas- 
ter in  the  same  year  endorsed  the  movement  and  the 
Seminary  became  a  fact. 

RELATIONS    WITH    THE   IOWA    SYNOD 

The  two  sainted  Doctors  Fritchel,  Sigmund  and  Gott- 
lieb, who  were  brothers,  were  widely  known  and  recog- 
nized as  the  pillars  of  strength  in  the  Iowa  Synod.  This 
was  particularly  the  case  with  regard  to  Sigmund,  who 
was  one  of  the  leading  Lutheran  lights  in  the  country, 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  157 

a  devout  and  gifted  son  of  the  Church  of  whom  it  could 
be  truly  said,  "Cor  theologum  facit."  Through  his  lead- 
ership chiefly,  and  through  his  intimate  friendship  with 
Drs.  Spaeth  and  Krauth,  the  Iowa  Synod  took  a  deep 
interest  in  the  organization  of  the  General  Council,  and 
while  k  did  not  feel  prepared  to  connect  itself  organic- 
ally with  the  Council  because  of  its  distinctively  German 
interests,  it  maintained  the  most  friendly  relations  with 
it  for  many  years.  After  both  had  passed  away,  and 
particularly  after  the  death  in  1910  of  Dr.  Spaeth,  who 
was  a  strong  connecting  link  between  the  two  bodies, 
the  bonds  became  less  firm  and  finally  snapped  asunder 
in  1917. 

It  was  at  Norristown,  in  1903,  when  Dr.  Schmauk 
was  elected  President  of  the  General  Council,  that  he 
became  deeply  interested  in  the  question  of  cementing 
the  ties  between  the  two  bodies  and  exerted  himself  to 
that  end  with  ardent  devotion  and  zeal.  The  spirit  of 
Iowa,  as  over  against  that  of  Missouri  and  Ohio,  ap- 
pealed to  him  strongly.  Its  piety,  alertness  and  activity ; 
its  evangelical  frankness  and  openness  of  mind,  coupled 
with  its  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  faith— reminded  him 
of  the  Halle  and  Muhlenberg  spirit  of  earlier  days  and 
made  him  feel  a  nearness  to  that  body  which  he  could 
not  feel  toward  any  other.  It  had  revolted  against  the 
legalistic  hardness  and  rigidity  of  other  Lutheran  bodies, 
and  he  felt  that  as  a  leavening  influence  in  the  General 
Council  it  would  prove  to  be  a  most  steadying  and  whole- 
some factor. 

When  Professor  Proehl  of  the  Dubuque  Seminary 
represented  the  Iowa  Synod  as  fraternal  visitor  at  the 
Norristown    Council,    its    newly-elected    president    was 


158  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

deeply  impressed  with  his  address.     He  later  quotes  a 
part  of  it  as  follows : 

There  never  has  been  a  time  when  the  Synod  of  Iowa  has  not 
sustained  intimate  and  cordial  relations  with  the  General  Council. 
I  may  remind  you  that  the  warmest  friendship  existed  between 
the  founders  and  fathers  of  your  body  and  the  now  sainted  fathers 
and  founders  of  our  Synod.  In  great  magnanimity  the  General 
Council  has  not  only  taken  an  interest  in  the  work  of  our  Synod, 
but  has  also  extended  to  us  much  help  and  assistance.  But  what 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  is  the  fact  that  we  are  conscious 
that  we  are  in  full  unity  in  faith  as  well  as  in  our  confessions. 
We  consider  the  doctrinal  position  of  the  General  Council  the 
true  and  sound  basis  for  the  unification  of  all  true  Lutherans  in 
our  country.  We  thank  God  that  our  dear  Lutheran  Church  has 
found  in  the  General  Council  a  faithful  defender  and  promoter 
of  its  best  traditions  and  a  successful  champion  of  the  Gospel 
truth.  Great  things  have  already  been  accomplished  in  the  up- 
building of  true  and  sound  Lutheranism,  and  in  the  future  of  the 
General  Council  and  along  the  lines  it  has  laid  down,  we  see  the 
glorious  future  of  our  Church.  It  is  the  best  representatio 
nominis  Lutherani, — as  conservative  as  it  is  progressive,  as  much 
bound  as  it  is  free,  it  unites  fidelity  to  God's  Word,  and  the  Con- 
fessions of  our  Church,  with  an  open  eye  and  intelligent  grasp 
of  the  duties  of  the  present  hour,  seeking  to  preserve  and  increase 
the  rich  heritage  of  the  Church  of  the  Reformation,  and  avoiding 
extremes  both  to  the  right  and  the  left. 

At  the  present  time  there  is  a  strong  agitation  for  union,  es- 
pecially among  the  Western  Synods,  but  I  fear  that  the  attempt 
will  be  made  to  bring  the  freedom  of  our  Church  under  an  un- 
bearable yoke  and  to  convert  the  Church  of  Luther  into  a  school. 
Over  against  such  endeavors  we  see  in  the  work  of  the  General 
Council  our  only  hope  for  true  union,  and  in  her  doctrines  the 
banner  around  which  all  the  faithful  Lutherans  of  our  country 
may  rally. 

A  speech  like  that  naturally  awakened  the  highest 
hopes  in  the  new  President  that  the  day  of  actual  union 
would  not  be  far  distant.  His  first  report  at  Milwaukee, 
with   its   wide   outlook    for   the   future   of   the    General 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS  159 

Council  and  its  unifying  mission  among  Lutherans  in 
America,  gave  abundant  evidence  of  these  high  hopes. 
When  Dr.  Richter,  President  of  the  Iowa  Synod,  who 
could  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  conservative 
strength  and  stability  of  the  Council  as  its  mission  was 
given  so  prophetic  a  forecast  in  President  Schmauk's 
report,  re-echoed  the  sentiments  of  Professor  Proehl, 
hope  was  added  to  hope.  At  the  Buffalo  Convention  in 
1907,  when  a  high  confessional  note  was  sounded,  which 
called  forth  from  the  fraternal  visitor,  Rev.  Carl  Proehl, 
son  of  Professor  Proehl,  strong  sentiments  of  kinship  and 
fellowship,  and  when  at  the  same  meeting,  the  Iowa 
Synod  was  given  most  liberal  consideration  in  the  publi- 
cation rights  of  the  Kirchenbuch  and  Church  Book,  the 
door  of  hope  was  swung  still  wider  open. 

FIFTY   YEARS   OF   FRUITLESS   WOOING 

But  in  the  interims  between  the  meetings  of  the  Coun- 
cil little  straws  showed  that  the  winds  were  not  blowing 
any  too  favorably  in  the  direction  of  union,  and  the 
President's  hopes  were  seasoned  with  misgivings.  In- 
fluences were  at  work  to  wean  the  aft'ections  and  confi- 
dence of  Iowa  away  from  the  Council.  The  Joint  Synod 
of  Ohio  proved  to  be  a  rival  suitor  and  its  leaders  did 
all  in  their  power  to  instill  doubts  in  the  minds  of  the 
Iowa  brethren  as  to  whether  the  Council  could  be  safely 
entrusted  with  the  guardianship  of  the  faith  because  of 
much  looseness  of  practice  within  its  bounds.  This  put 
Dr.  Schmauk  on  the  defensive ;  for  he  realized  most 
keenly  that  on  the  question  of  safe-guarding  the  faith  by 
a  consistent  practice  spots  in  the  General  Council  were 
vulnerable.  Pulpits  and  altars  were  here  and  there 
thrown  wide  open ;  membership  in  secret  societies  and 
organizations  where,  in  the  worship,  Christ's  name  was 


160  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

studiously  excluded,  was  not  discountenanced  as  was 
meet, — and  unionistic  and  legalistic  tendencies  were  in 
many  quarters  only  too  apparent.  In  many  letters,  he 
contends  that  by  the  Council's  educational  rather  than 
legalistic  methods  of  counteracting  this  looseness  of 
practice,  great  progress  toward  true  conservatism  had 
been  made.  On  the  other  hand,  he  insists  that  the  rigid 
legalistic  spirit  which  would  suppress  liberalistic  tenden- 
cies by  discipline  rather  than  by  persuasion  and  educa- 
tion would  some  day  create  and  foster  a  rebellion  and 
consequent  break  in  those  bodies  themselves. 

A  crucial  test  of  Iowa's  loyalty  to  the  Council  was  the 
meeting  of  Ohio  and  Iowa  representatives  at  Toledo  in 
February,  1907,  to  discuss  Theses  prepared  by  a  Joint 
Committee  of  the  two  bodies.  In  an  article  intended 
for  publication  in  The  Lutheran  (but  withheld)  Dr. 
Schmauk  writes  as  follows : 

These  Theses  were  intended  to  prepare  such  points  as  had 
previously  caused  a  lack  of  harmony  between  the  two  bodies. 
The  Iowa  Synod  accepted  the  Theses  unanimously  at  its  meeting 
in  June,  1907;  and  now  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  has  taken  the 
following  action  upon  them: 

1.  We  bring  it  to  attention  that  the  various  districts  have 
accepted  the  Toledo  Theses  by  a  majority,  with  the  exception  of 
one  district  which  could  not  agree  to  one  point. 

2.  On  account  of  the  position  in  which  the  Synod  of  Iowa 
stands  to  the  General  Council,  we  are  not  in  a  situation  to  estab- 
lish Church  fellowship  with  the  same  until  we  learn  officially 
from  the  Iowa  Synod  in  what  relation  it  stands  to  the  General 
Council. 

3.  So  far  as  the  erection  of  opposing  altars  and  friction  on 
mission  territory  are  concerned,  it  has  always  been  our  attempt 
to  avoid  the  same,  and  we  shall  also  continue  in  this  practice  in 
the  future. 

In  explanation,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  original  Joint  Com- 
mittee from  both  synods  had  resolved  that  in  case  the  result  of 


ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS  161 

their  action  were  approved  by  both  Synods,  pulpit  and  altar  fel- 
lowship should  forthwith  exist  between  the  Synods ;  no  opposing 
altars  should  be  erected,  but  church  members  moving  to  any 
particular  place  should  be  recommended  to  the  congregation  al- 
ready there;  and  unbrotherly  frictions  should  be  avoided  on 
the  mission  field.  These  resolutions  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Iowa  Synod. 

He  then  proceeds  to  relate  how  it  happened  that  the 
Joint  Synod  failed  to  adopt  them.  Though  nearly  all 
its  district  synods,  and  even  President  Schuette  himself, 
approved  them,  the  latter  made  fellowship  with  Iowa 
dependent  upon  the  breaking  of  fellowship  ties  between 
Iowa  and  the  Council.  This  Iowa  refused  to  do,  particu- 
larly since  it  later  felt  much  encouraged  with  the  strong 
confessional  note  struck  at  Buffalo  in  the  fall  of  the 
same  year.  However,  not  long  thereafter,  as  the  Presi- 
dent's correspondence  shows,  there  was  a  cooling  off  of 
the  fellowship  enthusiasm  which  had  been  created  at 
Buffalo.  There  had  been  some  insistence  in  Iowa  that 
the  Council  should  cease  all  fraternal  relations  with  the 
General  Synod.  The  stronger  these  relations  grew,  the 
weaker  the  other  relations  seemed  to  become.  Dr. 
Schmauk  was  fully  conscious  of  this,  but  maintained  that 
the  General  Council  was  called  into  existence  to  cement 
bonds  rather  than  to  weaken  or  break  them,  and  not  a 
few  men  in  the  Iowa  and  Ohio  Synods  agreed  that  he 
was  right  in  taking  that  position  provided  it  could  be 
done  without  sacrifice  of  principle. 

When  the  Augustana  Synod  advocated  reorganization 
of  the  General  Council  in  favor  of  a  larger  Federation 
at  the  Minneapolis  and  Lancaster  Conventions  of  1909 
and  1911,  and  when  Dr.  Richter  a/t  the  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary of  the  Augustana  Synod  in  1910  was  very  cordially 
welcomed  by  the  latter,  which  made  the  impression  upon 
L 


162  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Dr.  Schmauk  that  the  interests  of  these  two  bodies  were 
being  considered  as  more  in  harmony  than  those  of  the 
Augustana  Synod  and  the  Council,  it  flashed  upon  his 
mind  that  a  possible  coalition  between  Iowa  and  Augus- 
tana to  weaken  the  solidarity  of  the  Council  and  substi- 
tute a  federation  that  would  be  powerless  as  a  welding 
influence  might  result.  However  unfounded  his  fears 
may  have  been,  he  from  that  time  on  realized,  as  others 
also  did,  that  the  relations  of  both  bodies  with  the  Gen- 
eral Council  hung  upon  a  slender  thread.  He  could  have 
become  fully  reconciled  to  a  separation  with  both,  could 
he  have  seen  a  hopeful  future  for  a  union  of  the  Luth- 
eran forces  on  a  basis  that  would  actually  unite  and  not 
encourage  the  perpetuation  of  particularistic  brands  of 
Lutheranism.  Succeeding  events  and  tendencies  were 
but  the  initial  steps  that  led  to  the  separation  of  the 
Augustana  Synod  from  the  Council  and  the  declaration 
of  Iowa's  representative  at  the  Council's  meeting  in 
Philadelphia  (when  it  was  decided  to  enter  the  Merger), 
"Here  our  ways  do  part." 

He  felt  the  full  force  of  that  statement.  It  had  a 
sting  which  pierced  him  to  the  quick ;  for  he  loved  Iowa, 
had  wooed  her  fourteen  years,  and  was  loathe  to  see 
an  intimate  fellowship  of  fifty  years  brought  to  an  end. 
That  was  not  making  Lutheran  hi&tory  to  meet  the 
pressing  needs  of  the  future ;  it  was  unmaking  it. 


CHAPTER  XV 

A  Trying  Convention  (1909) 
Dr.  Schmauk  and  the  Swedes 

IVhen  it  comes  to  the  question  of  directing  the  affairs  of  the 
Council,  it  will  be  acknowledged  that  Dr.  Schmauk  possesses  spe- 
cial qualifications  tlmt  make  him  an  ideal  leader.  His  forceful 
and  magnetic  personality  are  on  a  par  -with  his  good  nature  and 
adaptability,  and  his  readiness  to  meet  trying  situations.  Also  there 
can  be  no  question  as  to  his  impartiality  and  straightforwardness 
in  conducting  the  proceedings.  His  capacity  for  work  is  phe- 
nomenal Besides  being  President  of  the  Council,  he  is  pastor  of 
a  large  congregation,  professor  at  Mt.  Airy,  editor  of  the  Church 
Review'  the  ablest  of  its  kittd  in  the  country.  He  has  zvrought  out 
a  marvelously  complete  system  of  Sunday  School  instruction,  and 
published  important  historic  and  religious  works,  one  after  the  other. 
In  speech  and  ivriting  he  plants  himself  firmly  upon  historic 
Lutheran  ground.  May  he  be  spared  to  serve  the  Church  many 
years .'-Augustana  (after  the  Rock  Island  Council  in  1915.) 

AM  well,  but  very  tired.  My  worst  work  is  over, 
and  I  believe  I  shall  get  through  all  right." 
Thus  reads  a  postal  card  containing  a  photo- 
graph of  the  President  of  the  General  Council  seated  in 
an  automobile.  The  snapshot  of  him  was  taken  on  a 
ride  with  a  friend  at  the  meeting  of  the  Council  in  Min- 
neapolis in  1909.  That  convention  proved  to  be  a  very 
strenuous  one— and  fully  as  trying  on  the  nerves  of 
its  president  as  it  was  strenuous.  The  Council  had  met 
on  the  territory  of  the  Minnesota  Conference  of  the  Au- 
gustana Synod— a  conference  more  or  less  out  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  General  Council.  Its  nestor,  Dr.  Nore- 
lius,  though  himself  friendly  to  the  Council,  was  not  wide 
of  the  mark  when,  some  time  before,  in  an  article  in 


164  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

the  Synod's  Quarterly,  he  said :  "In  our  Augustana 
Synod,  I  must  admit,  the  union  with  the  General  Council 
is  not  appreciated  as  much  as  it  deserves,  and  not  a  few 
perhaps  look  upon  that  union  as  something  unfortunate." 

This  same  article  had  given  the  President  deep  con- 
cern. In  it  certain  practical  difficulties  were  pointed  out 
which  made  the  union  with  the  General  Council  seem 
undesirable  to  many,  chiefly  in  the  Minnesota  Confer- 
ence. Among  those  mentioned  were  interests  which  did 
not  appeal  to  the  Augustana  Synod,  such  as  a  General 
Council  Seminary  at  Chicago,  or  a  Publication  House 
in  Philadelphia,  or  the  Immigrant  House  at  New  York; 
or  the  Church  Book  Committee's  work,  which  drew  its 
treasures  from  German  and  not  from  Swedish  sources; 
or  the  English  Home  Mission  work,  which  was  being 
carried  on  so  vigorously  in  the  Northwest  right  under  the 
shadow  of  Augustana  Synod  congregations. 

This  article  had  done  much  to  disturb  the  President's 
peace  of  mind,  and  when  the  Council  met  in  unfriendly 
territory,  he  feared  for  the  worst.  What  added  to  his 
anxiety  were  long-drawn-out  discussions  of  subjects  in 
which  few  of  the  Augustana  brethren  could  have  an  in- 
terest. Added  to  this  was  a  disposition  of  some  of  the 
eastern  members  of  the  Council  to  welcome  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Augustana  Synod  should  it  continue  to 
manifest  dissatisfaction.  When,  therefore.  Dr.  Norelius, 
in  order  to  satisfy  the  disaffected  element  in  the  Minne- 
sota Conference,  offered  a  resolution  calling  upon  the 
General  Council  "to  be  true  to  its  ecumenical  character 
and  not  seek  to  assume  the  functions  of  a  District  Synod," 
thus  inspiring  the  fear  that  synods  connected  with  it 
might  lose  their  identity,  the  President  felt  that  a  crisis 
in  the  history  of  the  Council  had  been  reached. 


A    TRYING    CONVENTION  165 

It  here  became  manifest  that  the  Swedish  brethren 
looked  with  suspicion  upon  any  movement  that  tended 
to  obscure  what  they  beheved  to  be  the  distinctive  work 
and  mission  of  their  synod.  They  had  their  own  educa- 
tional and  merciful  institutions;  their  own  publication 
house,  and  their  own  distinctive  literature;  they  had  a 
distinctive  home  mission  field  co-extensive  with  the 
United  States  and  Canada;  as  their  conferences  were 
virtually  synods,  they  considered  themselves  to  be  worthy 
of  a  higher  status  than  that  of  other  synods  within  the 
General  Council  and  to  have  the  character  of  a  general 
body  within  a  larger  general  body.  The  only  field  in 
which  they  felt  free  to  co-operate  was  that  of  Porto 
Rico  and  Foreign  Missions.  That,  together  with  par- 
ticipation in  the  settling  of  doctrinal  and  other  general 
questions,  was  the  only  real  connecting  link  between  the 
Augustana  and  the  other  synods.  To  them,  the  General 
Council  from  a  governmental  point  of  view  could  be  little 
more  than  a  rope  of  sand.  Others  in  the  East,  with 
strongly  synodical  and  individualistic  sympathies,  joined 
them  in  discouraging  what  seemed  to  them  to  be  a  tend- 
ency toward  centralization. 

At  Minneapolis  a  burning  and  troublesome  question 
was  thus  sprung  upon  the  General  Council,  and  its  Presi- 
dent from  that  time  on  was  placed  between  two  fires — 
between  those  who  wanted  the  Council  to  function  sim- 
ply as  an  advisory  body  and  those  who  wanted  its  power 
enhanced  as  a  unifying  legislative  body,  but  in  a  way 
that  would  alienate  Augustana.  The  marvel  is  that  he 
won  the  confidence  of  both  parties  in  his  effort  to  adjust 
differences  and  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  harmony.  But 
it  was  a  hard  and  thorny  pathway  he  had  to  travel.  He 
wisely  turned  the   Norelius  Resolution  over  to  a  com- 


166  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

petent  committee  to  consider  it  and  give  answer  to  it  at 
the  Lancaster,  Pa.,  Convention  in  1911.  In  a  long  letter 
to  Dr.  Horn,  a  member  of  this  committee,  he  makes  clear 
the  bearings  of  the  whole  situation  in  order  to  guide  the 
Committee's  deliberations  and  lead  it  to  a  correct  conclu- 
sion. He  opposed  any  abridgment  of  the  Council's  func- 
tions as  an  executive  body,  but  believed  the  Committee 
should  make  clear  that  no  synod's  liberty  or  autonomy 
is  in  any  wise  abridged  because  other  synods  feel  free 
to  unite  in  common  work.  This  was  done  by  the  Com- 
mittee. 

A  TEMPORARY  RAY  OF  HOPE 

It  had  seemed  as  if  the  atmosphere  had  been  cleared 
at  Lancaster  and  the  Augustana  delegates  went  away  evi- 
dently pleased ;  but  the  President  soon  discovered  that 
the  unrest  had  not  ceased,  and  writes  that  he  very  much 
feared  that  the  Augustana  delegates  would  foment  a 
split  at  the  Toledo  Convention  in  1913.  He  was  led  to 
this  conclusion  because  of  letters  received  stating  that 
there  would  be  no  peace  until  a  separation  took  place. 
Dr.  Frick,  the  Secretary  of  the  General  Council,  had 
received  a  letter  from  the  treasurer  of  the  Augustana 
Synod  in  which  the  latter  advocated  a  friendly  separa- 
tion and  said :  "The  signs  in  our  Synod  at  present  point 
to  a  separation."  This  caused  the  President  fresh  pain 
and  he  writes  to  Dr.  Frick : 

"The  ecclesiastical  effect  would  be  terrible.  It  would  be  the 
confession  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  its  failure  and  inability  to 
remain  united.  The  General  Council  is  the  only  body  that  has 
made  the  attempt  to  unite  the  Lutheran  nationalities  in  America. 
If  this  attempt  fails,  the  situation  is  hopeless  for  a  long  while. 
It  makes  me  sick  to  think  of  the  way  some  of  our  English  people 
advocate  the  Lutheran  Church's  going  into  a  general  Protestant 
unity  or  federation,  and  yet  neglect  the  patient  and  whole-souled 


A   TRYING   CONVENTION  167 

effort   that   is   necessary   to  bring   our  own  household   into  unity 
and  order." 

When  at  the  Toledo  Convention  no  movement  was 
made  by  the  Augustana  delegation  to  advocate  separation 
and  an  invitation  was  extended  by  it  to  meet  at  Rock 
Island  in  1915,  the  President  spoke  in  glowing  terms 
of  the  harmonious  meeting  and  regarded  the  crisis  as 
having  passed.  But  he  was  doomed  to  sore  disappoint- 
ment ;  for  in  the  year  following,  Lutheran  Companion 
advocated  separation  of  the  Foreign  Mission  field  and 
spoke  of  the  anomalous  situation  of  having  a  general 
body  like  the  Augustana  Synod  within  another  general 
body.  The  smoldering  fires  of  disafifection  were  thus 
being  fanned  into  a  fresh  flame,  and  as  the  next  conven- 
tion was  to  be  held  in  Rock  Island,  the  President  looked 
forward  to  it  with  serious  misgiving.  He  writes  to  a 
pastor  in  Toledo: 

The  convulsion  that  is  now  threatening  in  the  Augustana  Synod 
on  the  question  as  to  whether  it  shall  or  shall  not  separate  from 
the  General  Council,  with  possible  requests  for  the  re-organiza- 
tion of  the  Council,  or  with  a  possible  great  crisis  at  Rock  Island, 
may  render  the  problems  and  responsibilities  so  heavy  that  I 
may  be  unable  to  shoulder  them,  and  may  be  obliged  to  resign. 
I  hope  this  will  not  be  the  case,  as  I  am  not  one  of  the  kind  that 
is  built  to  desert  a  ship  at  the  critical  moment.  But  this  question 
is  a  matter  which  the  Lord  only  knows. 

What  induced  this  state  of  mind  was  a  resolution, 
passed  at  the  meeting  of  the  Augustana  Synod  in  1915. 
It  had  been  offered  by  Dr.  Johnson,  the  president  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  College,  as  a  substitute  for  a  more 
drastic  one  advocating  separation  and  the  reunion  as 
part  of  a  federation,  and  read  as  follows:  "That  the 
Augustana  Synod  respectfully  requests  the  General 
Council  to  so  alter  the  constitution  of  said  body  that  the 


168  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Augustana  Synod  no  longer  be  placed  in  the  relation  of 
a  District  Synod,  but  be  recognized  as  a  General  Body 
in  order  that  the  General  Council  may  become  both  in 
principle  and  practice  a  deliberative  and  advisory  body 
only,  so  as  to  facilitate  a  federation  of  all  the  Lutheran 
bodies  in  our  land." 

Later  Lutheran  Companion  had  this  to  say : 

The  General  Council  should  be  re-organized.  At  present  it  is 
composed  of  local  synods  and  one  general  body,  the  Augustana 
Synod,  and  the  relation  is  anomalous. 

Originally  it  was  a  deliberative  body  only.  But  the  smaller 
bodies  were  not  in  a  position  to  take  care  of  their  own  publica- 
tions, education,  missions,  and  charity  work.  Hence  they  re- 
ferred it  to  the  General  Council,  which  took  it  up  and  became 
to  that  extent  a  legislative  body.  And  as  the  territories  intersect 
and  are  covered  by  the  Augustana  Synod,  the  result  is  partly 
hitherto  friendly  friction  and  partly  lack  of  interest  on  our  part 
in  matters  outside  of  (or  inside  of)  our  jurisdiction.  Where  we 
are  not  directly  concerned  we  have  the  feeling  that  we  do  not 
wish  to  intrude,  as  our  only  part  in  these  sessions  is  the  un- 
pleasant duty  of  safeguarding  our  own  interests.  A  good  deal 
of  our  non-attendance  may  also  be  ascribed  to  this   feeling. 

The  local  synods  ought  therefore  to  be  organized  into  a  gen- 
eral body,  this  body  together  with  the  Augustana  Synod  to  con- 
stitute the  General  Council.  The  General  Council,  the  Synod  of 
the  South,  and  other  general  bodies  might  then  see  their  way 
clear  to  unite  with  us  in  a  deliberative  body  with  a  view  to  ap- 
proaching a  united  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 

Thus  the  old  question  of  reorganization,  which  the 
President  hoped  had  been  settled  at  Lancaster,  loomed 
up  before  him  afresh,  and  in  a  letter  in  which  he  com- 
plains that  the  English  Home  Mission  Board  had  not 
acted  wisely  in  the  Northwest  and  was  responsible  for 
much  distrust  and  ill-feeling,  he  says : 

This  resolution  says  "so  that  the  General  Council  may  become  a 
deliberafive  and  advisory  body  only"  in  order  to  further  the  unity 


A    TRYING    CONVENTION  169 

of  the  Lutheran  Church.  Now  if  it  were  only  the  matter  of 
guaranteeing  the  rights  of  the  Augustana  Synod,  as  to  liturgy, 
mission  work,  etc.,  without  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  Augustana 
to  remove  the  Council's  executive  and  practical  functions,  it 
would  be  all  right. 

But  they  complain  of  the  Chicago  Seminary.  They  complain 
of  our  Home  Mission  work.  The  language  of  their  resolution  is 
so  sweeping  that,  if  adopted,  it  would  at  least  legally  wipe  the 
activities  of  the  General  Council  off  the  slate. 

Later  he  shows  a  disposition  to  accede  in  some  meas- 
ure to  the  wishes  of  the  Swedes  and  writes: 

So  far  as  I  can  see,  the  only  way  to  do  is  for  some  of  our  great 
men  to  appear  at  their  meetings,  to  apologize  for  injuries  done 
by  little  rasping  men,  and  then  to  fire  the  imaginations  and  the 
feelings  of  the  Swedes  with  the  idea  of  unity;  and  also  probably 
propose  a  looser  unity  for  them  in  the  General  Council,  that  is, 
let  them  participate  in  the  things  they  want  to  participate  in, 
and,  say,  hold  one  day's  session  on  these  general  affairs  and  then 
let  them  go  home  and  let  the  Council  transact  its  specially  Ger- 
man and  English  business  without  them,  and  not  look  to  them 
to  support  this  specially  German  and  English  business. 

WANTS   NO   ATLANTIC    COAST    LUTHERANISM 

When  some  of  the  leaders  in  the  East  suggested  the 
advisabiHty  of  letting  the  Augustana  Synod  drop  out  of 
the  General  Council  and  of  drawing  together  into  some 
General  Conference  the  General  Synod  and  the  United 
Synod  South,  he  promptly  declares  himself  against  the 
idea  and  says  that  he  wants  no  "Atlantic  Coast  Luther- 
anism  uniting  by  itself  and  leaving  the  West  out  in  the 
cold." 

As  one  letter  to  Dr.  Schmauk  shows,  there  was  some 
cooling  ofif  of  affection  in  the  East  among  even  warm 
friends  of  the  Augustana  Synod  who  were  loathe  to 
see  a  separation.     It  reads  in  part  as  follows : 


170  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

We  must  show  the  Swedes  that  the  freedom  of  action  of  the 
Augustana  Synod  has  never  been  questioned  or  invaded,  but  what 
this  resolution  calls  for  is  a  decided  abridgment  of  the  liberty 
of  joint  action  on  the  part  of  the  other  synods. 

We  do  not  want  the  farce  of  the  Lancaster  method  of  dealing 
with  the  question  repeated.  Let  them  blow  off  their  steam  and 
invite  them  to  do  so.  Then  if  they  cannot  be  shown  the  pre- 
posterousness  of  their  position,  let  a  peaceable  separation  take 
place.  We  do  not  want  any  Synod  in  the  General  Council  whose 
heart  is  outside  of  it. 

But  the  thought  of  separation  was  repellent  to  him. 
In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Jacobs,  dated  June  19,  1915,  he  inclines 
toward  the  formation  of  a  larger  unity  in  which  the 
Augustana  Synod  might  feel  at  home,  though  far  from 
sure  that  it  can  come  to  realization.    He  says : 

We  cannot  reorganize  into  a  merely  deliberate  body,  especially 
not  while  the  General  Synod,  the  Missouri  Synod,  and  the  Joint 
Synod  of  Ohio  are  becoming  more  intensively  practical  bodies, 
nor  would  such  reorganization  be  conducive  to  unity,  but  it  would 
further  complicate  matters.  There  are  other  things  that  can 
perhaps  be  done.  If  we  can  get  the  General  Synod  and  the  Nor- 
wegian Synods  into  a  general  deliberative  body,  this  will  be  a 
real  step  toward  unity.  But  the  Augustana  way  is  not  the  way 
to  begin  such  an  effort. 

He  went  even  so  far  as  to  suggest  the  following  ad- 
dition to  the  General  Council's  Constitution,  which,  how- 
ever, was  not  submitted  for  consideration: 

Article  I.  Section  5.  General  Bodies  within  the  General  Coun- 
cil shall  themselves  have  the  full  powers  and  duties  enumerated 
in  the  preceding  four  sections,  and  shall  not  on  these  points  be 
amenable  to  the  General  Council,  except  in  departments  where 
they  in  fact  or  by  resolution  have  established  co-operation  with 
the  General  Council.  The  General  Council  shall  divide  its  busi- 
ness into  two  parts,  namely,  one  part  in  which  General  Bodies 
co-operate  with  the  District  Synods,  in  which  part  all  bodies 
have  a   voice   and   vote  as    prescribed  by   this   constitution;    and 


A    TRYING    CONVENTION  171 

another  part  in  which  the  General  Bodies  do  not  desire  to  co- 
operate and  in  which  only  the  District  Synods  co-operate  with 
their  voice  and  vote.  General  Bodies  may  at  any  time  become 
members  of  the  General  Council  in  the  regular  way,  and  with 
their  autonomy  duly  preserved,  and  in  accordance  with  the  pro- 
visions of  this   Section. 

THE    FEDERATION    MOVEMENT 

When  a  "Federation  of  Lutheran  Synods"  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  was  proposed  in 
1915,  he  at  first  favored  it  as  furnishing  a  possible  solu- 
tion to  the  Augustana  Synod  difficulty.  But  when  it  ap- 
peared that  presidents  of  synods  within  the  General 
Council  were  invited  and  the  General  Council  as  a  single 
unity  was  not  recognized,  he  immediately  refused  to  co- 
operate. He,  however,  drew  up  a  series  of  propositions 
which  would  broaden  the  scope  of  the  General  Council 
and  enable  it  to  function  as  a  larger  unity,  with  the 
Swedes,  the  Germans,  and  the  English-'Germans  as  three 
constituent  parts  of  the  general  body,  each  with  its  dis- 
tinctive work  independently  carried  on  and  with  only 
such  activities  in  common  as  they  should  mutually  agree 
to  enter  into.  Then  other  Lutheran  bodies  should  be 
invited  under  similar  conditions,  thus  forming  a  new 
and  enlarged  federated  alliance,  looking  toward  ultimate 
union.  As  later  events  proved,  he  regarded  such  federa- 
tion as  a  temporary  makeshift  and  finally  came  to  the 
conviction  that  it  would  do  more  to  perpetuate  national- 
istic and  other  peculiarities  than  to  eHminate  thera. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  END 

This  agitation  from  1909  to  1915  proved  to  be  but 
the  beginning  of  the  end.  Had  not  the  love  and  confi- 
dence of  the  Augustana  brethren  in  the  President  of 
the  General  Council  been  so  strong,  a  separation  would 


172  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

have  taken  place  ere  the  year  1917.  He  was  frequently 
invited  to  participate  in  important  celebrations  in  the 
Augustana  Synod,  but  his  frequent  illnesses  and  his 
aversion  to  travel,  forbade  him  to  make  more  than  very 
few  engagements.  At  its  Golden  Jubilee  in  1910,  he  de- 
livered an  address  on  "Ancient  Ideals  of  Education  from 
a  Modern  Point  of  View"  at  the  college  in  Rock  Island, 
and  made  a  profound  impression.  It  was  there  that  he 
was  honored  with  the  title  of  LL.D.  by  the  institution. 
This  mutual  attachment  did  much  to  prevent  the  break, 
and  the  Augustana  delegates  could  always  be  counted 
on  to  vote  for  his  continuance  in  the  presidential  office. 

When  in  1917,  the  laymen  of  the  Quadricentennial 
Committee,  of  which  Dr.  Schmauk  was  chairman,  pro- 
posed signalizing  the  four-hundredth  birthday  of  the 
Reformation  by  uniting  the  Lutheran  forces  in  this  coun- 
try, as  far  as  would  be  possible,  it  soon  became  apparent 
that  the  beginning  of  the  end  had  come.  Dissenters  in  the 
Augustana  Synod  felt  that  now  the  opportune  moment 
had  arrived  to  revive  the  federation  idea,  and  at  a  meet- 
ing in  Minneapolis  made  a  proposition  looking  toward 
the  attainment  of  that  end.  But  the  President's  long 
experience  with  a  loosely  organized  body  made  him  more 
and  more  opposed  to  a  federation.  He  saw  in  it  the 
embodiment  of  all  the  elements  of  weakness  with  which 
he  was  forced  to  contend  during  his  long  administration 
and  believed  it  would  retard  rather  than  accelerate  the 
process  of  a  real  inner  "life  together." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  give  the  full  inner  story 
of  his  efforts  to  prevent  the  impending  breach,  but  it 
would  lead  us  too  far  afield.  When  in  1918,  after  re- 
peated assurances  to  the  President  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil from  leaders  in  the  Augustana  Synod  that  there  would 


A    TRYING    CONVENTION  173 

be  no  separation,  action  was  taken  by  that  body  to  sever 
its  connection  with  the  General  Council,  the  expected 
at  last  took  place.  Dr.  Schmauk  had  suffered  much  dur- 
ing the  trying  years  since  the  Minneapolis  Council.  He 
felt  that  a  bond  formed  in  1867,  with  such  leaders  as 
Esbjorn,  Hasselquist,  Erland  Carlsson  and  Norelius  to 
conjure  with,  could  not  be  broken  without  serious  loss 
to  the  cause  of  unity  in  the  American  Lutheran  Church. 
His  hopes  for  a  greater  and  more  thoroughly  united 
General  Council,  of  which  the  Buffalo  Convention  in  1907 
was  to  be  the  prophecy,  were  thus  rudely  shattered,  and 
the  first  experiment  to  bring  to  unity  several  racial  Luth- 
eran strands  in  America  was  brought  to  an  untimely  end. 
His  faith  in  the  General  Council's  mission  had  been  un- 
bounded and  his  heart's  devotion  to  it  made  the  sacrifice 
of  time  and  energy  and  health  in  its  behalf  seem  trivial. 
After  fifteen  years  of  unsparing  service  as  its  president, 
a  rent  in  the  General  Council  inflicted  a  wound  upon  him 
which  even  the  new  and  larger  union  into  which  the 
Council  entered  in  1918  could  not  heal.  In  a  letter 
dated  June  18,  1918,  to  Dr.  Abrahamson  of  the  Augus- 
tana  Synod,  a  strong  supporter  of  the  union,  he  writes 
what  may  be  considered  his  valedictory,  as  follows : 

We  shall  indeed  greatly  miss  our  Augustana  brethren  whom 
we  have  learned  to  labor  with  and  to  love.  Certain  seats  will 
always  look  empty  at  every  convention.  I  believe  it  is  a  com- 
bination of  different  feelings  and  forces  that  produced  this  re- 
sult in  your  Synod. 

The  lack  of  correlation  between  Augustana  as  a  national  body 
and  the  General  Council  as  a  national  body  seems  to  me  to  be 
the  unnecessary  emphasis  of  a  theory.  Of  course  there  are  diffi- 
culties, but  with  patience  they  could  have  been  adjusted. 

There  are  many  illogical  realities  in  life  that  go  on  and  suc- 
ceed very  well  indeed.  And  the  worst  of  it  is  that  these  men 
will  not  get  rid  of  their  difficulties  by  the  remedy  they  propose, 


174  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

viz.,  a  Federation.  There  would  be  the  same  national  bodies 
paralleling  and  overlapping  each  other.  And  in  a  Federation  we 
only  get  close  enough  together  to  learn  to  stand  on  our  own 
rights  and  dislike  each  other ;  and  not  close  enough  together  to 
learn  to  love  each  other  and  labor  together. 

So  far  as  the  mission  frictions  are  concerned,  the  opponents  of 
the  General  G>uncil  have  surely  not  improved  the  Augustana 
situation.  To  me,  from  an  ecclesiastical  point  of  view,  the  chief 
disappointment  is  that  the  Lutheran  faith  here  in  America,  where 
it  has  had  its  largest  opportunity,  has  not  proven  itself  large 
enough  to  be  universal ;  but  other  considerations,  whatever  they 
may  be,  have  proven  themselves  superior,  and  have  risen  once 
again  to  separate  and  divide. 

This  is  the  great  lesson,  viz.,  the  failure  of  our  American 
Church  to  demonstrate  the  universalism,  the  catholicity,  and  the 
inherent  power  of  our  faith,  when,  for  the  first  time  in  centuries, 
it  had  opportunity  to  do  so.  This  is  the  submerging  feature  in 
the  failure  of  the  underlying  principle  that  moved  the  fathers  to 
form  the  General  Council.  They  would  shed  tears  today  at  this 
result. 

And  it  is  this  which  fills  my  heart  with  sorrow.  I  have  had 
no  personal  desires  to  accomplish  in  the  presidency  of  the  Gen- 
eral Council,  but  it  has  been  my  deep  and  steady  wish  to  prove 
the  proposition  of  our  fathers,  viz.,  that  the  Lutheran  faith  is  a 
catholic  faith,  and  that  if  given  proper  opportunity,  it  will  show 
its  inherent  unity  in  its  outer  works,  will  show  that  faith  is  cap- 
able of  uniting  human  hearts  in  a  better  way  than  does  the  ex- 
ternal ecclesiasticism  of  Rome;  and  that  divisions  and  separatism 
are  not  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  have  pressed  for  immediate  union 
for  the  United  Lutheran  Church.  I  would  rather  have  had  it 
grow  a  little  more  slowly.  But  when  the  situation  was  forced 
upon  us  to  decide,  and  we  had  to  choose  the  one  or  the  other,  in 
view  of  the  great  events  in  which  we  are  living,  I  felt  that  Provi- 
dence wanted  us  to  act  now.  I  am  confident  that  you  took  the 
same  broad  view. 

CO-OPERATION  WITH   THE  GENERAL   SYNOD 

The  course  of  Lutheran  ecclesiastical  love  never  did 
run  smooth.     As  President  of  the  General  Council,  Dr. 


A   TRYING   CONVENTION  175 

Schmauk  was  in  a  position  to  realize  the  full  force  of 
this  truth.  Ever  since  his  endeavor  at  the  meeting  of 
the  General  Synod  in  Dubuque,  la.,  in  1901,  where  as 
delegate  he  secured  favorable  action  for  the  appointment 
of  a  joint  "Committee  on  Practical  Co-operation,"  he 
became  deeply  interested  in  establishing  friendly  rela- 
tions between  the  two  bodies.  He  never  allowed  himself 
to  believe  that  it  was  for  the  best  interests  of  the  Luth- 
eran Church  in  America  to  adopt  a  policy  of  aloofness 
toward  the  General  Synod.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
just  as  determined  that  co-operation  should  not  be  pur- 
chased at  the  expense  of  the  General  Council's  position 
on  questions  involving  the  confessional  principle  and  a 
practice  accordant  therewith. 

His  letters  to  such  friends  in  the  General  Synod  as 
Drs.  Bauslin,  Keyser,  Dunbar,  Hamma  and  others  were 
of  a  most  cordial  and  intimate  character.  He  was  frank 
in  pointing  out  to  them  the  hindrances  in  the  way  of  a 
closer  affiliation  between  the  two  bodies,  particularly 
when  the  question  of  adjusting  the  well-known  mission 
difficulty  which  troubled  both  bodies  from  1907  to  1915 
was  thrust  upon  him.  Now  that  the  two  bodies  have 
been  united,  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  detail ;  but 
through  this  whole  period,  when  co-operation  in  missions 
and  Sunday  School  literature  was  carried  on  with  more 
or  less  difficuhy,  he  never  lost  faith  in  an  ultimate  har- 
monious solution,  and  bent  all  his  energies  toward  that 
end. 

But  the  main  issue  he  was  striving  to  meet  was  the 
doctrinal  one.  In  an  interesting  letter  to  Dr.  Keyser, 
after  the  Buffalo  Convention  in  1907,  he  speaks  of  the 
mischief  Profs.  Richard  and  Evgen  are  doing  in  foment- 
ing trouble  between  the  bodies  on  the  Confessional  ques- 


176  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

tion,  while  he  also  laments  the  unwise  utterances  of  Dr. 
Nicum  on  the  General  Council  side.  He  then  proceeds 
to  show  in  quite  graphic  fashion  how  it  happens  that 
Lutherans  do  not  get  together  as  they  should.  He  finds 
the  seat  of  the  difficulty  in  two  extreme  tendencies — a 
rigid,  strait-laced  Lutheranism  outside  of  both  General 
Council  and  General  Synod,  and  a  radical  and  liberal 
Lutheranism  within  the  General  Synod.  Two  incidents 
occurred  which  make  it  necessary  to  mention  the  name 
of  Prof.  Dr.  Richard,  whose  attitude  toward  the  Gen- 
eral Council  was  known  to  be  unfriendly.  He  was  a 
scholar  of  no  mean  attainments,  but  his  native  inclination 
to  be  polemical  made  the  pathway  toward  unity  between 
the  two  bodies  difficult.  At  a  meeting  of  Philadelphia 
pastors  of  both  bodies  to  discuss  the  confessional  ques- 
tion, he  managed  to  be  present  and  made  the  statement 
that  "rather  than  subscribe  to  the  Formula  of  Concord, 
he  would  have  his  arm  burned  ofif  at  the  stake."  Another 
was  an  attempt  of  his  to  sow  discord  between  the  General 
Council  and  the  "General  Lutheran  Conference"  (Alge- 
meine  Konferenz).  Dr.  Schmauk  therefore  puts  the  situ- 
ation in  the  Lutheran  Church  to  Dr.  Keyser  as  follows : 

As  to  Lutheranism  in  this  land,  I  believe  it  divides  about 
as  follows: 

1.  A  self-complete  ecclesiastical  Lutheranism — with  large 
foreign  admixture.  [Lutherans  who  keep  aloof  from  both  Qjun- 
cil  and  Synod.] 

2.  A  complete  Confessional  Lutheranism — with  elements 
American  and  foreign.     [Lutherans   of  the   General   Council.] 

3.  A  Lutheranism  of  fundamental  p'rinciple — American. 
[Conservatives  in  the  General  Sj'nod.] 

4.  A  nominal  and  accommodative  and  liberal  Lutheranism — 
American  and  unstable.     [Radicals  in  the   General   Synod.] 

It  is  1  and  4  that  make  the  trouble.  It  is  2  and  3  that  suffer. 
2  and  3  do  not  overlap  any  more  than  do  3  and  4.     But  2  and  3 


A    TRYING    CONVENTION  177 

very  often  agree  on  square  and  hearty  principle.  There  are  seri- 
ous points  of  difference  of  principle,  especiailly  on  inference; 
but  they  are  capable  of  being  fair  to  each  other  and  of  respect- 
ing dififerences  of  principle.  3  and  4  do  not  belong  together  any 
more  than  2  and  3,  if  as  much.  Yet  they  are  tied  together.  This, 
with  the  really  deeper  unities  between  2  and  3,  which  are  so 
exasperating  to  4,  keeps  4  continually  worked  up  into  fury  and 
lashing  the  waters. 

Neither  2  nor  3  are  by  nature  the  aggressor ;  but  either  1  or  4 
manages  to  keep  2  and  3  almost  continuously  in  hot  water. 
2  has  been  in  hot  water,  boiled  on  the  hot  stove  of  1,  ever  since 
she  was  a  little  babe,  and  accepts  periodic  scalding  from  it.  She 
■has  ail  so  been  receiving  many  a  scalding  from  4,  but  since  4 
has  of  late  years  been  setting  up  to  be  the  essence  of  real  Luth- 
eranism,  and  has  been  assuming  that  she  is  3  and  4,  2  has 
turned  to  3,  and  has  said,  "What  are  you,  my  dear  one?  Tell 
us  now.  Are  you  4?  If  so,  you  are  certainly  not  3,  and  still 
less  are  you  2.  If  you  are  really  3,  then  be  so,  even  if  it  be 
necessary  to  loosen  yourself  from  4.  We  do  not  ask  you  to 
be  2,  though  we  should  indeed  be  very  glad  to  have  you,  but  we 
respect  your  principle.  But  we  do  ask  you  to  be  yourself, — else 
how  can  we  deal  with  you?  When  we  supposed  that  we  were 
embracing  you,  lo  and  behold,  our  arm  has  gotten  around  4,  and 
the  result  was  not  consolation,  but  castigation.  Now  no  maiden 
can  expect  to  win  a  friend  if,  being  3,  her  suitor  does  not  know 
whether  it  really  is  3  or  whether  it  is  4.  Though  the  voice  be 
the  voice  of  Jacob,  the  hand  after  all  turns  out  to  be  the  hand 
of  Esau." 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  situation  in  a  nut  shell,  that 
it  is  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  that  alongside  of  it,  the  Formula 
of  Concord  issue,  while  it  touches  to  the  root  in  a  way,  is  not 
the  reail  sum  and  substance  of  the  thing.  But  the  Formula  of 
Concord  issue,  being  raised  by  4,  (please  note  it  was  raised  by  4, 
and  not  iby  2),  and  raised  so  sneeringly  and  offensively,  that  4 
declared  she  would  rather  have  her  arm  burnt  off  at  the  stake 
than  ever  accept  the  Formula  as  a  test  of  Lutheranism,  2  could 
not  do  otherwise  than  take  the  issue  as  4  tauntingly  pressed  it 
upon  her. 

Why  is  it,  that  a  man  like  Dr.  Jacobs,  mild-mannered,  gentle- 
manly, forgiving  and  conciliatory,  one  who  has  always  worked 
M 


178  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

for  peace,  and  one  who  has  led  in  the  effort  to  draw  2  and  3 
together,  would  draw  up  such  Theses  as  you  heard  at  Buffalo? 
Those  Theses  did  not  come  from  the  Germans.  Neither  were 
they  a  matter  of  aggrieved  personality,  but  a  matter  of  convic- 
tion. There  is  a  situation  here,  which  has  simply  been  forced 
upon  2,  one  might  say,  in  a  most  brutal  way.  I  doubt  whether 
conservative  men  outside  of  Eastern  Pennsylvania  realize  what 
that  situation  has  been,  and  how  much  some  of  us  have  done 
to  try  to  avert  it.  It  has  been  impossible.  We  have  been  obliged 
to  meet  4.  For  years  3  has  told  us  that  4  was  nothing,  and 
should  not  be  considered,  and  we  believe  they  believe  it.  But 
we  have  found  by  most  sad  experience  that  it  is  otherwise. 
4  insists  on  being  met.  Hence  Buffalo.  We  cannot  ask  3  to 
manage  4,  for  4  does  not  want  to  be  managed  and  will  not  be 
managed.  Neither  can  we  ask  3  to  separate  from  4,  for  3  loves 
4; — and  that  is  none  of  our  business.  Therefore  we  (by  we,  I 
mean  2,  and  not  a  few  men  of  whom  I  am  one  personally ;  for 
I  am  giving  my  explanation  of  a  general  situation)  did  the  only 
thing  that  was  left. 

The  best  solution  that  I  see,  is  the  one  that  the  Lord  has 
evidently  not  yet  given  His  consent  to,  that  is,  for  2  and  3  to 
bind  4  hand  and  foot.  3  is  now  engaged  in  an  effort  to  sew 
the  mouth  of  4  shut,  for  which  I  am  exceedingly  thankful;  but 
I  believe  that  the  nature  of  4's  jaw  is  of  such  a  character  that 
even  the  most  approved  and  thorough  wire-stitching  will  not 
be  able  to  keep  its  roar   from  being  heard. 

This  letter  makes  clear  the  difficulties  that  lay  in  the 
pathway  of  the  union  that  w^as  later  consummated  at  New 
York.  It  is  a  frank  and  true  statement  of  a  situation 
that  for  years  stood  in  the  way  of  a  closer  affiliation  and 
union  among  Lutherans,  and  its  spirit  will  not  be  mis- 
interpreted. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

"The  Confessional  Principle"  (1907-1911) 

Dr.  Schmauk  as  Seminary  Professor 

"Doctrine  w  intellectual  and  spiritual  bone.  It  is  principle. 
Better  have  a  dozen  diverse  living  species,  each  separately  ribbed 
and  tempered,  than  amalgamate  them  all  by  removing  the  bones 
and  boiling  them  dozm  together  into  one  great  cake  of  sheep  meat 
jelly.  A  church  without  distinctive  doctrinal  principle  is  a  verte- 
brate ztnthout  vertebrae." — Schtnauk. 

THE  many-times  President  of  the  General  Coun- 
cil had  pitched  his  confessional  song  at 
Buffalo  in  a  high  key.  Could  he  keep 
the  Council  true  to  that  pitch?  There  followed 
much  rejoicing  because  of  the  strong  confessional 
note  that  had  been  struck.  Letters  of  approval 
came  from  the  Iowa  Synod  and  created  fresh  hope  that 
union  with  the  General  Council  might  result.  Dr.  Stell- 
horn,  of  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  who  had  been  in  cor- 
respondence with  Dr.  Schmauk  several  years  before  and 
who  entertained  high  hopes  of  the  leading  part  the  latter 
was  destined  to  take  to  keep  the  General  Council  true  to 
its  confessional  position,  now  expressed  his  joy  at  what 
had  transpired  at  Buffalo.  Others  from  outside  the  Gen- 
eral Council  wrote  to  him  in  a  similar  vein. 

But  after  the  enthusiasm  had  more  or  less  subsided, 
Dr.  Schmauk  felt  that  the  influence  of  that  convention 
would  be  transient  if  it  were  not  followed  up  with  a  more 
thorough  discussion  of  the  confessional  principles  that  had 
there  found  expression.  With  the  passing  away  of  so 
many  pillars  who  were  in  fullest  sympathy  with  those 
principles,  he  feared  a  weakening  of  the  confessional 
consciousness  if  something  were  not  done  to  strengthen 


180  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

it  and  keep  it  alive.  There  were  indications  on  many  sides 
that  his  fears  were  well  founded.  Hence,  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  as  early  as  May  7th,  we  read  in  his  diary, 
"Worked  on  Book."  Later  this  item  appears  again  and 
again.  On  September  9,  1910,  we  read,  "Proofs  of 
Confessional  Principle,"  and  on  March  21,  1911,  the 
words,  "Confessional  Index,"  appear. 

This  volume  of  962  pages  had  been  completed  some 
time  earlier,  when  the  book  of  Dr.  Richard  of  Gettysburg 
entitled  "The  Confessional  History  of  the  Lutheran 
Church"  appeared.  He  found  so  many  misleading  and 
harmful  statements  in  this  book  that,  after  an  immense 
amount  of  painstaking  research,  he  prepared  an  "Histori- 
cal Introduction"  in  which  the  real  facts  connected  with 
the  history  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  are  brought  out 
in  such  remarkably  complete  detail  and  accuracy  as  to 
be  almost  the  last  word  on  the  subject.  It  was  a  con- 
vincing refutation  of  the  positions  taken  in  the  "Confes- 
sional History"  of  Professor  Dr.  Richard.  The  theme 
of  the  Book  may  be  stated  in  his  own  words  in  the  pre- 
face :  "Absolute  dependence  on  the  Word,  that  is,  on 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Word,  in  the  Church,  has  resulted 
in  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Confession."  In  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  work,  he  was  assisted  by  Dr.  C.  T.  Benze, 
who  spent  many  days  at  Lebanon  translating  from  Kolde 
and  other  important  authors  that  proved  serviceable.  It 
called  forth  commendations  from  many  quarters.  On  June 
25,  1911,  Dr.  Jacobs  wrote  him  the  following  brief  letter: 

I  have  just  finished  a  rapid  examination  of  your  book.  I  wanted 
to  form  an  impression  of  it  as  a  whole,  before  entering  into 
the  closer  examination  of  details.  It  has  held  me  fast  all  day, 
except  when  in  church,  and  for  two  brief  breathing  spells. 
I  have  read  enough  to  lead  me  without  waiting  longer  to  express 


THE    CONFESSIONAL    PRINCIPLE  181 

my  intense  delight  and  most  isincere  gratitude.  You  have  pro- 
duced an  epoch-making  book.  Not  only  will  it  live,  but  its  in- 
fluence may  be  more  far-reaching  than  anything  that  has  as 
yet  appeared  in  the  English  language  within  our  Church.  You 
•have  not  left  the  least  shred  of  an  argument  against  the  Con- 
fessional position  unanswered.  I  am  astonished  at  your  patience 
in  pursuing  your  opponent  with  the  consideration  of  the  most 
minute  details  on  side  questions,  when  you  might  have  been  con- 
tent with  your  triumphant  overthrow  of  the  main  argument. 

Dr.  Jacobs  was  inspired  to  write  a  series  of  nine  long 
articles  for  The  Lutheran  touching  on  many  questions 
suggested  by  this  book.  Others  felt  that  a  great  defender 
of  the  faith  had  arisen.  A  Philadelphia  lawyer  (G.  E. 
Schlegelmilch)  wrote  him  a  long  letter  in  which  he  stated 
that  he  had  never  known  what  it  was  to  be  a  Lutheran 
until  he  had  read  this  book,  and  he  hoped  that  many  other 
laymen  would  also  read  it.  More  than  one,  including  Dr. 
Jacobs,  at  once  linked  the  author  with  Dr.  Krauth.  One 
letter  that  came  to  him  expresses  the  general  sentiment 
of  all,  a  part  of  which  reads  thus : 

Dr.  Jacobs  voices  my  conviction  when  he  virtually  says  that 
you  have  taken  a  long  step  in  advance  of  Krauth  and  given  us  a 
message  that  goes  to  the  heart  of  things  even  more  than  did  his. 
You  have  brought  Krauth  up  to  date.  Your  book  has  given  me 
fresh  hope  and  inspiration.  You  have  brought  your  great  argu- 
ment home  to  the  Twentieth  Century. 

DR.   SCHMAUK   AS    SEMINARY   PROFESSOR 

"Apologetics  is  on  a  lower  plane  than  Dogmatics,  inasmuch 
as  the  intellect  is  below  faith  in  the  Christian's  life." — "Science 
is  our  hold  on  nature;  religion  our  hold  on  God.  The  object  of 
science  is  to  perceive  the  laws  miderlying  the  complexities  of 
natural  phenomena;  the  object  of  religion  is  to  supply  the  longing 
of  the  soul  for  communion  atul  kinship  zvith  the  Find  Source 
of  life,  love,  goodness  and  truth — God." 

"Since  ethics  deals  with  the  right  conduct  of  life,  its  statidard 
viust  necessarily  be  the  perfection  of  life;  and  to  us  Christians 


182  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

it  has  been  set  forth  in  the  living  personality  of  our  Saviour. 
Life  can  only  be  measured  and  interpreted  by  life.  Hence  even 
if  the  Scriptures  were  a  Book  of  Laws,  which  they  are  not,  they 
could  not  be  expected  to  contain  an  ultimate  standard  of  ethics. 
Our  absolute  standard  of  perfect  life  is  found  in  the  life  and 
character  of  God,  and  He  has  been  revealed  to  us  in  His  Only 
Begotten  Son,  full  of  grace  and  truth." — Schmauk. 

When,  in  1910,  Dr.  Jacobs  had  urged  Dr.  Schmauk  to 
consent  to  being  nominated  as  professor,  the  latter  in  a 
lengthy  letter  gave  reasons  why  he  felt  that  he  could  be 
of  greater  service  to  the  Seminary  if  he  remained  presi- 
dent of  the  Board.  A  few  quotations  will  make  his  posi- 
tion clear: 

I  really  believe,  and  this  is  a  matter  of  judgment  as  well  as 
of  inclination,  that  I  can  be  of  more  service  constructively  to  the 
Seminary  and  to  the  Church  by  remaining  on  the  Board  of 
Directors,  and  by  standing  in  the  broader  fields  of  church  activity, 
than  by  concentrating  all  my  energy  as  a  specialist  in  a  particular 
department  of  investigation  and  teaching. 

I  love  literary  work  and  teaching,  and  I  do  not  care  for  ad- 
ministrative work  or  for  business ;  but  I  do  not  believe  it  to  be 
possible,  if  I  should  become  a  teacher,  for  me  to  continue  bearing 
the  more  general  constructive  burdens  of  the  Church;  and  if  I  feel 
anxiety,  it  is  really  more  respecting  these,  than  respecting  any 
one  department  in  the  Seminary. 

As  I  look  at  it  the  upbuilding  work  in  our  Board  has  just 
begun,  and  there  is  much  hill  climbing  to  be  done  quietly  and 
conservatively,  but  steadily,  still  before  us. 

Further,  we  are  standing  on  the  very  brink  of  a  change  from 
the  old  to  the  new,  and  from  the  young  to  the  old ;  and  I  believe 
that  I  can  probably  be  of  more  service  to  the  institution  in  en- 
couraging growth  and  preventing  revolution,  on  the  Board,  than 
if  I  were  pinned  down  to  a  department  in  the  Faculty. 

Still  further,  it  would  be  a  very  difficult  thing  for  me  to  give 
up  the  preaching  office  and  pastoral  work.  I  have  my  father's 
life  as  a  minister  before  me,  and  it  is  a  source  of  comfort  and 
safety   to  me  where   I    can    follow   in   his    footsteps.     There  are 


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SEMINARY    PROFESSOR  183 

many  specific  reasons  that  would  enter  into  the  statements  made 
above,  and  which  it  is  not  necessary  to  allude  to  now,  as  I  do  not 
in  my  heart  believe  that  I  shall  be  required  to  meet  this  crisis. 

I  might  probably  be  willing,  if  the  Church  thought  so,  to  enter 
into  some  special  technical  course  on  a  lectureship  and  teaching 
basis,  with  limited  hours,  and  which  would  be  understood  to  be 
of  a  temporary  nature,  until  the  Church  were  more  able  to  fill 
its  needs.  But  I  am  not  looking  to  this,  or  even  considering  it. 
And,  so  far  as  I  can  see  now,  it  would  only  be  to  prevent  another 
from  entering  the  institution,  whom  I  would  regard  as  a  great 
mistake,  or  if  the  Qiurch  would  insist,  and  would  convince  me 
that  I  am  doing  wrong,  which  I  do  not  believe  it  will  be  able  to 
do,  that  I  would  think  of  becoming  a  professor. 

In  his  diary  of  date  May  19,  1911,  are  written  the 
words:  "Accepted  call  to  professorship — to  serve  one 
year  gratuitously — expenses  to  be  paid  by  the  Board." 
Dr.  Schmauk  was  elected  Professor  at  the  Seminary  at  a 
Special  Session  of  the  Ministerium,  held  in  St.  Mark's 
Church,  Philadelphia,  Feb.  14,  1911.  The  chair  to  which 
he  was  elected  was  that  of  "The  Confession  and  Defence 
of  the  Christian  Faith,"  a  new  chair,  provided  for  in  the 
report  presented  to  the  Ministerium  at  this  Special  Ses- 
sion by  the  Board. 

This  added  one  more  heavy  responsibility  to  the  many 
others  he  was  already  assuming.  It  had  been  hoped  that 
he  would  resign  as  pastor  at  Lebanon  and  lay  aside  nu- 
merous other  offices  and  duties  he  was  discharging,  and 
devote  himself  more  or  less  exclusively  to  this  new  task. 
At  this  time  he  was  serving  as  President  of  the  General 
Council,  President  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Semi- 
nary, Trustee  of  Muhlenberg  College  and  Chairman  of 
its  Committee  on  Degrees,  Editor  of  the  Review,  Liter  • 
ary  Editor  of  The  Lutheran,  Editor  of  Lutheran  Graded 
Sunday  School  Lesson  Series,  Chairman  of  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Pennsylvania  German  Society,  Member 


184  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

of  Church  Book  Committee,  and  several  other  regular 
appointments  that  made  drains  upon  his  time  and  energy. 

But  the  friends  who  had  urged  him  to  hmit  himself 
were  mistaken.  When  once  he  had  firmly  taken  hold  of 
a  task,  acquainted  himself  with  its  problems,  and  planned 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  interests  that  were  involved 
in  it,  he  was  not  the  man  to  let  go.  What  he  began  must 
be  consummated  before  he  would  be  willing  to  relinquish 
any  responsibility  he  had  assumed,  and  as  he  never  saw 
the  end  of  the  task  to  which  he  was  committed,  he  held  on. 

Being  deeply  concerned  in  the  carrying  out  of  the 
Seminary's  plans  for  progress  and  expansion,  he  remained 
its  President  and  declined  a  full  professorship. 

He  was  not  content  to  be  a  mere  figurehead  in  any 
office  he  assumed,  and  he  kept  his  hand  on  the  Seminary's 
afifairs  down  to  the  minutest  details.  He  had  an  intelli- 
gent grasp  of  the  business  end  of  the  administration  and 
always  came  to  the  Board  meetings  well  prepared  with 
a  complete  outline  of  matters  to  be  discussed  and  finally 
settled.  He  had  well-matured  ideas  as  to  the  conduct 
of  the  Library  and  took  a  hand  in  revising  and  reorgan- 
izing methods  that  proved  to  be  no  longer  adequate.  He 
was  equally  interested  in  a  revision  of  the  courses  off^ered 
at  the  Seminary  and  of  improved  methods  of  teaching, 
particularly  after  the  Schieren  Professorship  had  been 
established. 

So  then,  as  Dr.  Jacobs  says  (Lutheran  Church  Revieiv,  July, 
1920),  for  nine  years,  at  great  sacrifice  of  time  and  labor,  and 
at  imminent  risk  to  health  and  life,  the  two-fold  Seminary  burden 
of  President  of  the  Board  of  Directors  and  temporary  incumbent 
of  what  amounted  to  a  full  professorship  devolved  upon  him,  in 
addition  to  his  pastorate  and  his  duties  as  chief  administrator 
of  almost  numberless  important  Church  responsibilities.  So  heavy 
and  constant  was  the  strain  that  no  one  man  could  be  expected 


SEMINARY    PROFESSOR  185 

to  bear  it  long.  For  he  carried  no  duty  lightly;  not  only  were 
all  details  of  each  of  his  several  avocations  mastered,  but  this 
was  done  also  with  great  expense  of  feeling.  Every  problem  to 
be  solved  brought  its  peculiar  anxieties.  He  was  no  transient 
visitor  to  these  grounds,  performing  a  certain  round  of  duties 
perfunctorily,  scarcely  learning  the  names  of  students,  and  then 
hastening  away  to  forget  the  Seminary  amidst  other  occupations 
until  the  next  week  arrived.  Much  that  was  on  his  mind  he 
would  not  wait  to  discuss  until  his  next  visit,  but  would  com- 
municate in  frequent  and  often  long  letters.  Absence  from  fac- 
ulty meetings  was  very  rare.  He  claimed  his  share  and  took 
his  turn  in  almost  all  the  extra  duties  his  associates  voluntarily 
assumed.  Students  he  learned  to  know  not  only  in  the  class 
room,  but  in  close  personal  contact,  in  which  he  dealt  with  them 
as  an  elder  brother,  sympathizing  with  their  perplexities  and 
sharing  even  in  their  merriment.  For  their  instruction,  he  was 
ever  projecting  what  was  fresh  and  new  and  could  be  of  the 
•most  practical  use.  He  was  always  collecting  new  material  and 
making  new  studies  of  the  students  to  whom  he  was  to  impart 
what  he  gathered. 

Dr.  Schmauk  knew  full  well  that  the  customary  method 
of  teaching  Apologetics  failed  in  large  measure  to  lead 
to  positive,  constructive  results,  and  he  preferred  to  desig- 
nate the  position  he  was  to  occupy  as  teacher,  as  the 
"Chair  of  the  Christian  Faith."  Dealing  with  mere  nega- 
tions and  skeptical  argumentations  had  little  attraction 
for  him.  He  believed  in  planting  himself  firmly  on  the 
solid  vantage  ground  of  faith  and  making  that  the  start- 
ing point  from  which  to  venture  forth  to  meet  the  foe. 
How  he  interpreted  his  task  is  set  forth  in  the  Seminary 
Catalogue  of  1916  as  follows: 

Apologetics  has  usually  been  regarded  as  the  scientific  defense 
of  Christianity  against  any  and  all  attacks.  Its  aim,  too  often, 
has  not  been  investigation,  but  vindication.  Instead  of  seeking 
patiently  after  the  truth,  and  setting  forth  the  results  impartially, 
it  has  sought  to  overturn  antagonists.     This  has  been  done  by  a 


186  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

priori  arguments  and  a  summation  of  facts  that  are  now  a  relic 
of  a  bygone  age.  A  broader  and  more  constructive  view  of 
the  work  of  this  department  is  to  set  forth  the  ultimate  principles 
of  Christianity  in  their  inner  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the 
problems  of  the  human  mind,  as  these  have  been  developed  his- 
torically, and  thus  afford  the  student  an  adequate  basis  and  the 
materials  for  making  up  his  mind  and  arriving  at  conviction  on 
points  of  doubt  and  difficulty.  The  intellectual  side  of  Christian- 
ity becomes  scientific  rather  than  militant.  Christianity  unfolds 
its  own  inner  strength,  and  begets  its  own  conviction  in  the  mind. 
A  positive  and  structural  attitude,  confident  of  the  inherent  rea- 
sonableness of  Christianity,  so  far  as  the  intellect  is  able  to  com- 
prehend it,  takes  the  place  of  a  mere  defence.  The  need  of  the 
age  is  an  insight  into  the  inherent  nature  of  Christianity,  a  search 
for,  and  an  organic  maintenance  of  its  own  inner  value,  a  build- 
ing up  of  its  own  intellectual  foundation,  in  their  relation  to 
modern  issues.  Hence  the  Department  is  regarded  positively, 
as   one  of  construction  and   maintenance. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  piles  of  material  in  the  form 
of  lectures  on  this  subject  covering  an  immense  field  of 
thought  and  fact,  were  gathered  which  with  some  revision 
could  easily  be  transformed  into  books.  When,  upon  the 
death  of  Dr.  Horn,  the  subject  of  Ethics  was  assigned  to 
him,  he  launched  into  another  boundless  field  of  study 
and  investigation,  and  soon  had  enough  material  assorted 
and  arranged  for  several  more  books. 

The  writer  requested  Prof.  Emil  E,  Fischer,  D.D., 
his  successor,  to  furnish  an  outline  of  the  subjects  Dr. 
Schmauk  felt  called  upon  to  teach.  The  reader  will  be 
struck  with  the  richness  and  vastness  of  the  field  he  at- 
tempted to  cover,  and  with  the  peculiarity  of  his  method, 
which  was  intended  to  enlarge  the  student's  vision,  to 
strengthen  conviction,  to  broaden  the  scope  of  interest 
and  to  make  lasting  impressions  rather  than  to  impart 
mere  knowledge  on  the  basis  of  which  the  student  could 
be  examined. 


SEMINARY    PROFESSOR  187 

The  following  courses,  including  elective  and  degree 
courses,  were  offered  by  Dr.  Schmauk  during  the  years 
that  he  spent  at  the  Seminary : 

The   Christian   Principle   in   Modern   History. 

History  of  Thought,  Ancient  and  Modem,  in  Its  Relation  to 
Christianity. 

Modern  Criticism  and  its  Application  to  Various  Parts  of  the 
Old  Testament  Field. 

Principles  of  the  General  Council  and  Their  Application  to  the 
Local  Congregation  and  to  Various  Contemporary  Tendencies 
and  Movements. 

The  Critical  History  of  Unbelief  in  Modern  Thinking,  with 
Special  Reference  to  the  19th  Century  Developments  in  Philosophy, 
and   Science,  and  to  20th  Century  Problems. 

Grounds    for    Belief    in    Christianity. 

Philosophical   Arguments    for   a   Divine   Being. 

The  Psychology  of  Our  Lord's  Life. 

The  Significance  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  Qosing  Part  of 
Our  Lord's  Life  for  Apologetics. 

Christianity  and  Current  Schools  of  Non-Christian  Thought. 

Theory  of  Christian  Education. 

The  Problems  of  the  Church  in  Education  and  Christian 
Training. 

The  Art  of  Teaching  and  of  Christian  Training. 

The  General  Council  Graded  Sunday  School  System,  Sunday 
School  Teaching  and  Management. 

The  Training  of  Children,  A  Comparative  Study  of  Biological, 
Moral,  Legal  and  Christian  Principles. 

Source   Collections  of    Lutheran  History   in   America. 
The  Origin,  Faith  and  Organization  of   Lutheranism  in  Amer- 
ica ;  The  Constitution  of  the  United  Lutheran  Church  in  America. 
Present   Problems  in  the  Lutheran   Church. 


Ethics  of  the  Individual  Christian  Life. 

Ethics  of  Government,  Ethics  of   Nations,  of  War,  of   Diplo- 
macy and  Social  Ethics. 


188  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

The  Ethical  Teachings  of  Jesus. 

Analysis  of  the  Growing  Group.  Consciousness  in  Social  Life : 
What  Will   be  Its   Influence  on  the   Church? 

Problems  in  Social  Ethics :  Poverty,  Its  Problems  and  Causes ; 
Wealth  and  Its  Distribution. 

The  Ethics  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

Ethical  Elements  in  Luther's  Early  Tractates. 

METHODS  OF  TEACHING 

As  in  everything  else,  Dr.  Schmauk  was  unique  in  his 
method  of  teaching.  His  method  is  very  fully  described 
by  one  of  his  students,  now  the  Rev.  Arthur  H.  Getz, 
who  for  some  time  acted  as  his  secretary  and  steno- 
grapher. He  expresses  at  length  what  other  students  have 
more  briefly  said  and  written.  We  quote  from  him  as 
follows : 

No  phase  of  Doctor  Schmauk's  multifarious  activities  was 
closer  to  his  heart  than  that  of  instructing  his  students  at  the 
Philadelphia  Theological  Seminary.  He  carefully  and  consci- 
entiously prepared  for  every  hour  with  his  classes.  Though 
sometimes  tired  after  wearisome  committee  meetings,  and  fa- 
tigued from  traveling  and  lack  of  sleep,  his  buoyant  spirit  was 
revived  the  moment  he  entered  the  class-room  and  came  into 
contact  with  his  students.  Who  among  his  students  can  ever  for- 
get his  hearty,  cheery,  sincere  greeting  as  he  entered  his  class- 
room and  said :  "Good  morning,  boys.  How  are  you  this 
morning?"  Every  word  of  that  greeting  spoke  of  interest 
in  every  individual  member  of  the  class.  A  few  addi- 
tionial  remarks,  perhaps  upon  the  weather,  perhaps  upon 
some  event  in  the  life  of  the  student  body,  perhaps 
upon  some  event  recorded  in  the  morning  newspaper,  served  to 
arouse  the  attention  of  all  present,  and  in  every  case  served  to 
lead  directly  to  the  Subject  under  consideration.  A  moment  or 
two  was  spent  in  recalling  to  mind  the  subject  last  discussed  and 
in  connecting  it  with  the  subject  next  to  be  discussed,  and  then 
the  work  of  the  hour  had  begun. 

No  one  method  of  instruction  was  used  to  the  exclusion  of 
all    others.       Sometimes    he    employed    the    question    and    answer 


SEMINARY    PROFESSOR  189 

method;  then  he  encouraged  a  free  discussion;  and  often  he 
lectured.  Frequent  reference  was  made  to  the  natural  phe- 
nomena, to  the  things  familiar  to  the  men  in  their  every  day  life, 
to  the  trials  and  experiences  with  which  all  were  familiar,  and 
to  the  bonds  which  were  dear  to  all.  The  intellect  and  mind, 
the  heart  and  emotions,  the  fears,  the  doubts,  the  hopes,  the  mis- 
givings, the  joys,  the  sorrows  were  all  appealed  to  as  occasion 
warranted,    in   impressing    upon    students   eternal    truths. 

For  the  thoughtful  student  Doctor  Schmauk  was  the  ideal 
teacher,  and  every  hour  seemed  like  a  model  class  in  pedagogy. 
He  was  always  dignified  in  the  class-room,  and  yet  ever  willing 
to  come  down  to  the  level  of  the  most  humble  student.  Form  for 
form's  sake  was  annoying  to  him,  but  form  for  the  sake  of 
decency  and  order  was  an  absolute  requisite  in  his  class-room. 
He  never  sought  to  impress  the  dignity  of  his  position  as  a 
member  of  the  faculty  and  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors of  the  Seminary  upon  his  students,  but  loved  to  assume  the 
role  of  "Older  brother."  Nothing  pleased  him  more  than  to  see 
the  whole  class  gather  close  to  him,  under  his  very  eyes,  so  that 
he  could  speak  to  them  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  heart.  No 
interest  of  the  class  or  of  any  member  of  the  class  was  foreign 
to  him,  and  the  most  trivial  question  was  answered  with  an 
earnestness  worthy  of  the  most  weighty  philosophical  problem. 

The  most  difficult  subjects  to  teach  in  a  Seminary  curriculum 
are  perhaps  Ethics  and  Apologetics.  For  not  only  must  cer- 
tain fundamental  truths  be  discovered,  and  certain  immutable 
laws  adhered  to,  but  these  truths  and  laws  must  then  be  illus- 
trated from  life  so  that  the  principles  may  be  indelibly  stamped 
upon  the  minds  of  the  students.  And  frequently,  due  to  the 
intensely  practical  nature  of  these  subjects,  there  is  room  for 
diversity  of  opinion  when  the  rules  are  to  be  applied  to  indi- 
vidual cases.  Hence  there  is  a  double  danger  which  the  pro- 
fessor of  these  subjects  must  avoid:  the  danger  of  merely  lectur- 
ing without  allowing  a  discussion  by  the  class,  which  would  both 
clarify  and  deepen  the  impression;  and  the  danger  of  allowing 
the  discussion  to  over-emphasize  minute  points  at  the  expense  of 
the  larger  issues,  and  thus  lead  into  by-paths.  In  order  to  avoid 
this  double  difficulty  Doctor  Schmauk  closely  followed  a  care- 
fully prepared  manuscript.  At  times  he  would  read  word  for 
word  what  he  had  written,  but  his  reading  was  so  eloquent  that 


190  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

it  never  became  wearisome  to  the  class.  At  other  times  he  used 
a  very  full  outline  as  the  basis  of  his  lectures.  But  whether 
the  lecture  was  delivered  from  outline  or  from  manuscript,  the 
style  was  brilliant,  sparkling,  scintillating,  fascinating,  and  he 
wlio  had  an  ear  for  rhythmical  sentences,  an  appreciation  for 
figurative  language,  a  mind  for  philosophical  thought,  could  not 
help  being  thrilled  by  the  words  which  fell  from  the  lips  of 
this  master  teacher. 

The  person  who  is  not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  method 
which  Doctor  Schmauk  used  will  wonder  if  his  lectures  were  al- 
ways appropriate,  for  lectures  read  from  manuscript,  especially 
if  years  have  passed  since  the  manuscript  was  prepared,  do  not 
always  present  the  most  timely  illustrations.  However,  in  this 
case,  the  illustrations  and  the  timeliness  of  every  part  of  the 
lecture  was  one  of  the  great  sources  of  power.  And  this  was 
due  to  the  manner  of  preparation  for  lectures  which  the  Doctor 
employed.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  a  careful  outline  was 
prepared  of  the  subjects  to  be  treated  in  the  course,  with  head- 
ings, divisions,  sub-divisions,  and  sub-sub-divisions.  This  outline 
might  be  digressed  from  in  the  course  of  the  year,  due  to  ques- 
tions brought  up  by  the  class ;  but  it  was  never  forgotten,  and 
sooner  or  later  there  was  a  return  to  it.  The  outline  was  pre- 
pared at  the  beginning  of  the  course,  after  an  immense  amount 
of  reading  which  had  been  thoroughly  digested,  but  the  manu- 
script itself  was  written  within  a  very  short  time  before  the 
lecture  was  delivered,  often  the  very  night  before.  This  assured 
timely  illustrations,  harmony  of  thought  and  plan,  and  such 
brevity  and  conciseness  that  every  word  of  the  lecture  counted. 
It  is  this  careful  preparation,  almost  immediately  preceding  the 
lecture,  that  accounts  for  the  wonderful  epigrammatic  style  used 
in  the  class-room. 

The  student  was  at  liberty  to  interrupt  at  any  point  of  the 
lecture  in  order  to  ask  a  question.  Such  questions  were  always 
answered  with  a  fullness  of  thought  and  knowledge  that  was 
astounding,  with  a  suavity  that  was  admirable,  and  with  an 
earnestness  of  purpose  that  was  truly  inspiring.  If  a  question 
required  such  detailed  or  minute  information  that  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment  he  could  not  be  certain  of  the  answer,  he  frankly 
stated  so,  giving  what  he  thought  was  the  solution,  and  prom- 
ising to  verify   it  before  the  next  class,  and  in  no  case  did  he 


SEMINARY    PROFESSOR  191 

forget  to  give  fuller  information  at  the  next  meeting.  He  also 
made  a  mental  note  of  all  questions  asked,  and  after  class  analyzed 
them,  trying  to  find  out  what  in  the  previous  training  or  experi- 
ence of  the  man  led  him  to  ask  the  question.  And  if  he  discov- 
ered the  least  trace  of  anything  that  might  prove  dangerous  to 
the  man's  thought,  such  as  the  influence  of  radicalism,  he  would 
again  refer  to  the  question  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  meeting 
and  clear  up  all  difficulties.  In  order  that  he  might  do  this 
the  better  he  tried  to  learn  what  books  the  men  were  reading, 
and  if  there  were  any  he  was  unfamiliar  with,  no  matter  what 
their  character,  he  would  secure  them  and  give  them  his  careful 
attention.  Thus  he  maintained  a  firm  hold  upon  students,  and 
by  his  broad-minded  discussion  of  the  problems  they  were  think- 
ing about,  held  their  love  and  won  their  admiration. 

The  information  imparted  to  students  in  the  class-room  was 
valuable,  and  yet  if  all  this  information  were  forgotten,  if  every 
last  fact  related  were  blotted  from  the  memory  of  those  who 
sat  at  the  feet  of  this  esteemed  teacher,  the  hours  spent  with  him 
would  yet  be  of  lasting  value,  for  his  unshakable  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  Christianity  of  very  necessity  strengthened  the  faith 
of  all  who  knew  him.  His  lectures  were  full  of  personal  testi- 
mony, and  which  of  his  students  will  ever  forget  the  impression 
made  by  the  illustration  of  the  blind  man  in  John  and  the  quot- 
ing of  the  words:  "This  I  know;  whereas  before  I  was  blind, 
now  I  see"?  By  the  inspiration  of  Doctor  Schmauk's  faith,  doubts 
were  removed,  new  strength  imparted,  fresh  courage  imbibed; 
for  to  him  the  Gospel  of  the  Scriptures  were  in  very  deed  "the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Quadri- Centennial  Celebration  of  the 
Reformation  (1917-1920) 

"Faithful  common  action  and  common  service  come  out  from  a 
common  faith.  Union  is  really  a  matter  of  vital  growth  from 
zmthin  outwards,  and  cannot  be  hurried  by  casting  away  convic- 
tions. God  brought  m-en  to  America  to  unite.  But,  sir,  it  is  to  be 
by  growth  and  breeding.  It  is  to  be  by  purifying  the  blood,  not 
by  removing  the  bone.  Meanwhile,  there  are  things  zvorse  than 
Division,  htdifference  is  zuorse.  IVorldliness  is  worse.  Hypocrisy 
is  worse.  Proselytism  is  worse.  Love  of  grand  effect  is  worse. 
Wavering  in  faith  is  zvorse." — Schmauk. 

ALREADY  in  1909  at  the  Minneapolis  Convention 
of  the  General  Council,  its  President  was  look- 
ing forward  to  a  worthy  celebration  of 
the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
the  Reformation.  In  his  report,  he  recalls  the 
"profound  influence  exerted  upon  the  early  part  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century,  and  felt  throughout  the  whole 
century,  and  even  today,  by  the  celebration  of  the  Three 
Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Protestant- 
ism," when  Claus  Harms  in  1817  by  his  ninety-five  theses 
"sounded  the  trumpet  and  awoke  the  hosts  of  the  Lord 
against  the  prevailing  rationalism  and  unionism  into  which 
Protestantism  had  been  falling."  He  urges  the  import- 
ance of  making  "a  mighty  effort  to  do  something  hand- 
some for  our  educational  and  missionary  work  during 
the  next  eight  years"  in  appreciation  of  God's  blessings 
through  the  Reformation.     He  hopes  to  awaken  an  in- 


QUADRI-CENTENNIAL    CELEBRATION  193 

terest  among  Americans  in  "the  fundamental  principles 
of  liberty  and  law,  of  progress  and  conservatism  which 
underlie  the  best  life  in  this  nation  and  which  are  found 
in  the  history  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  the  Con- 
servative Reformation." 

Again  at  the  Lancaster  Convention  two  years  later, 
he  embodies  in  his  report  the  following : 

There  remain  but  six  years  for  the  Lutheran  Church  to  prepare 
a  proper  World  Celebration  of  the  Quadri-centennial  of  the 
Reformation.  The  celebration  this  year  of  the  Three  Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  the  Authorized  version  of  the  English  Bible  has 
•shown  that  almost  no  English  or  American  writers  have  taken 
cognizance  of  the  part  Luther's  German  Version  played  in  the 
making  of  the  English  Version,  and  the  lesson  taught  is,  that, 
unless  we  take  time  by  the  forelock,  as  a  Church,  the  beginnings 
of  Protestantism  will  be  celebrated  here  in  America  by  Ameri- 
cans with  Luther  as  a  great  and  heroic  historical  character,  but 
with  the  Lutheran  Church  regarded  as  some  obscure  sect  which 
has  barely  heard  of  the  Great  Reformer.  To  the  Jubilee  Com- 
mittee of  our  Council  has  been  committed  the  extraordinary 
financial  task  of  raising  two  million  dollars  for  the  Church  in 
honor  of  the  Jubilee,  and  also  of  submitting  plans  at  this  session 
for  the   worthy  celebration  of  the  coming  event. 

His  enthusiasm  for  the  forthcoming  celebration  was  all 
the  more  strengthened  because  he  hoped  thereby  to  see  an 
awakening  of  the  confessional  consciousness  in  his  own 
and  other  branches  of  the  Lutheran  Church  and  a  tidal 
wave  of  evangelical  Christianity  set  in  motion  among 
Protestants  to  counteract  the  rationalism  and  liberalism 
of  the  day.  At  the  Toledo  Convention  in  1913,  he  reports 
that  invitations  had  been  extended  to  the  General  Synod 
and  the  United  Synod  South  to  unite  with  the  Council 
in  a  joint  plan  of  celebration.  There  resulted  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  on  September  1st,  a  joint  meeting  of  the  com- 
N 


194  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

mittees  of  the  three  bodies  at  Atlantic  City,  and  on  Janu- 
ary 29th  and  30th  of  1915  another  meeting  at  Pittsburgh 
with  representatives  of  the  Iowa  and  Ohio  Synods  also 
present.  Thus  was  ushered  in  a  united  movement,  with 
Dr.  Schmauk  as  Chairman  of  the  Quadricentennial  Com- 
mittee, which  was  destined  to  result  in  a  new  epoch  in 
American  Lutheran  history. 

This  placed  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  Council's  presi- 
dent an  added  burden  of  responsibility.  The  breaking  out 
of  the  War,  which  had  shaken  the  world  with  the  force 
of  an  earthquake  from  center  to  circumference,  made  the 
task  of  creating  Reformation  enthusiasm  exceedingly  dif- 
ficult and  seriously  disturbed  his  peace  of  mind.  He  had 
much  to  contend  with  to  establish  orderly  and  effective 
modes  of  procedure  because  of  loose  and  irresponsible 
activities  and  interference  on  the  part  of  others.  Because 
of  the  divided  condition  of  the  Church,  there  seemed  to 
him  to  be  too  much  overlapping  of  effort,  and  he  com- 
plains :  "These  free  lance  methods  are  the  bane  of  our 
Church,  and  makes  those  of  us  who  believe  in  order  often 
feel  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  try  for  any  higher  union." 
He  was  speaking  of  an  active  committee  operating  in  New 
York  without  co-ordination  with  his  own  committee.  He 
writes  to  one  of  the  brethren  in  New  York  late  in  1916: 

"The  root  difficulty  in  the  case  is  a  looseness  of  general  organi- 
zation of  the  Lutheran  Church,  which,  then,  in  concentration 
upon  any  specific  object  such  as  this  leads  to  multiplication  of 
machinery  and  overlapping."  Ten  days  later  he  complains  to  the 
same  brother  of  the  confusion  created  by  not  rightly  correlating 
the  machinery,  in  these  words :  "The  multitude  of  details  pour- 
ing almost  daily  into  my  office  is  so  far  beyond  my  strength  that 
it  at  times  almost  fills  me  with  despair." 

Nor  were  his  difficulties  lessened  even  when  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  some  semblance  of  order  was  established; 


QUADRI-CENTENNIAL    CELEBRATION  195 

for  when  the  United  States  entered  the  war,  there  were 
those  who  feh  the  sting  of  the  reproach  that  was  so  un- 
justly heaped  upon  the  Lutheran  Church  by  an  insidious 
propaganda  and  at  once  urged  that  the  celebration  be 
abandoned.  The  very  mention  of  the  name  Luther,  who 
at  times  was  spoken  of  as  responsible  for  the  war,  and 
the  coupling  of  the  name  of  William  II  with  the  Luth- 
eran Church  as  if  his  militaristic  philosophy  and  his  mis- 
takenly supposed  Lutheranism  were  synonymous,  were 
not  conducive  to  much  Reformation  enthusiasm,  and  the 
anomalous  situation  worried  the  directing  genius  of  the 
Quadricentennial  Committee  more  than  a  little.  But  while 
this  chilled  the  movement,  it  did  not  chill  Dr.  Schmauk's 
resolve  to  proceed  with  the  celebration,  however  unto- 
ward the  circumstances  might  be. 

THE    LUTHERAN    WAR    COMMISSION 

Then  came  the  Lutheran  War  Commission.  As  Dr. 
Schmauk  had  a  leading  hand  in  the  organization  of  this 
Commission,  a  few  words  must  be  said  as  to  its  inception. 

Steps  to  care  for  our  soldiers  and  sailors  had  been 
taken  by  the  Pennsylvania  Ministerium  and  later  by  other 
eastern  synods.  As  results  were  not  satisfactory  because 
the  necessary  co-ordination  of  activities  on  a  larger  scale 
was  lacking,  the  President  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (Dr.  H.  A.  Weller)  called  a  meeting  of  the  commit- 
tees of  the  several  synods.  Dr.  Knubel  was  present  as  one 
of  the  representatives,  and  when  Dr.  Weller  suggested 
the  formation  of  a  National  Lutheran  Commission  and 
that  the  President  of  the  General  Council  be  asked  to  call 
a  meeting  of  all  the  presidents  of  Lutheran  bodies  or 
synods  looking  to  that  end,  it  was  so  agreed,  and  the 
same  night,  in  the  month  of  September,  1917,  telegrams 
were  sent  by  Dr.  Schmauk  to  the  various  presidents,  and 


196  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

not  long  thereafter  the  National  Lutheran  War  Commis- 
sion, with  Dr.  Knubel  as  its  head,  came  into  existence. 

As  President  of  the  General  Council,  he  felt  obliged  to 
keep  in  close  touch  with  its  work  and  was  in  constant 
correspondence,  giving  counsel  and  direction,  in  order 
that  the  church  body  he  represented  might  be  sure  to  do 
its  part  in  furnishing  chaplains,  camp  pastors,  Red  Cross 
workers  and  funds  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  crisis.  His 
letters  here  again  reveal  his  deep  concern  for  orderly 
procedure  and  for  the  proper  co-ordination  of  the  agen- 
cies and  the  church  bodies  in  this  work.  This  soon  be- 
came an  accomplished  fact,  and  with  an  able  and  efficient 
War  Commission  functioning  for  the  whole  Lutheran 
Church  (excepting  Missouri),  in  orderly  manner,  the  ma- 
chinery moved  along  smoothly  and  without  any  serious 
hitches.  While  Dr.  Schmauk  was  not  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  Commission,  he  did  much  by  way  of  advice 
and  direction  to  add  to  its  efficiency. 

THE  EVENTFUL  MEETING  OF  APRIL    18,   1917 

When  the  Quadricentennial  Committee  met  at  the  City 
Club,  Philadelphia,  on  April  18,  1917,  a  surprise  was 
sprung  upon  its  chairman  and  the  other  clerical  mem- 
bers. The  question  to  be  discussed  was  "Federation  or 
Unification  of  the  Lutheran  Church."  Dr.  Schmauk 
opened  the  discussion  by  stating  that  he  "was  opposed  to 
federation."  There  was  "too  much  states  rights  idea" 
about  it.  "This  would  only  postpone  real  unity  and  even 
oppose  it."  He  "was  prepared  to  offer  a  sliding  scale 
from  a  general  to  as  much  involved  a  union  as  the  Lu- 
theran Church  will  stand.  In  a  word,  what  we  want  is 
an  organic  unification  of  the  whole,  and  not  a  strength- 
ening of  individual  units  by  a  mutual  league  which  will 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  197 

encourage  permanent  maintenance  of  smaller  bodies  in 
their  individual  spheres." 

Then  came  the  surprise.  The  Hon.  J.  L.  Zimmerman 
immediately  arose  and  said :  'The  laymen  have  a  plan 
of  unification  which  will  merge  the  bodies  that  enter  it," 
and  proceeded  to  read  a  resolution  that  had  been  adopted 
by  the  laymen  in  separate  session  the  evening  before: 
"Resolved,  That  this  meeting  request  the  Joint  Lutheran 
Committee  to  arrange  a  general  meeting  of  the  Lutherans 
to  formulate  plans  for  the  unification  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  America." 

With  his  clear  insight  for  orderly  procedure,  Chairman 
Schmauk, somewhat  surprised  and  non-plussed,  remarked: 
"This  must  be  presented  to  and  acted  upon  by  the  official 
authorities  of  the  Church  in  a  meeting  of  the  men  from 
all  bodies  participating.  There  must  be  proper  authority 
to  propose  plans." 

"This  plan  will  include  all  bodies  willing  to  unite,"  re- 
plied Mr.  Zimmerman. 

"It  is  essential  to  agree  upon  method  before  making 
the  official  proposal  to  any  body  if  there  is  to  be  hope 
of  its  success,"  remarked  Dr.  Schmauk. 

Then  Mr.  E.  Clarence  Miller  rose  and  said :  "There 
is  no  committee  in  my  opinion  which  has  as  much  author- 
ity to  discuss  the  union  of  the  three  bodies  as  this  one. 
We  are  appointed  with  authority  to  arrange  for  a  proper 
celebration  of  the  Four  Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the 
Reformation.  Nothing  we  can  do  can  better  mark  this 
celebration  than  the  union  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  or  at 
least  our  three  bodies.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Joint 
Committee  at  Atlantic  City,  I  presented  a  resolution  that 
the  celebration  should  be  marked  by  the  union  of  the 
three  bodies  in  the  year   1917,  but  such  a  motion  was 


198  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

then  considered  premature.  The  time  has  now  come 
for  us  to  undertake  this  great  move  for  our  Church. 
This  is  the  psychological  moment,  and  I  move  that  when 
we  convene  after  lunch  we  discuss  the  basis  of  unity 
looking  toward  the  union  of  the  three  bodies." 

The  laymen  had  taken  the  meeting  by  storm  and  the 
motion  carried  without  further  debate. 

At  the  afternoon  session,  a  definite  plan  for  union 
was  presented  by  Mr.  Miller  advocating  the  merging  of 
the  three  bodies;  the  extending  of  an  invitation  to  other 
Lutheran  bodies  after  the  plan  should  be  approved  by 
the  three;  the  merging  of  all  the  boards  except  the  Swe- 
dish and  the  German;  and  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  a  constitution.  After  further  discus- 
sion by  the  laymen,  there  was  no  disposition  on  the  part 
of  the  clergy  to  oppose  the  plan,  though  the  question  of 
divergence  in  practice  was  raised  as  a  possible  obstacle  in 
the  way. 

The  Chairman  was  then  requested  to  present  a  plan 
which  he  deemed  to  be  feasible.  His  plan  provided  for 
a  gradual  growing  together  until  the  time  was  ripe  for 
complete  merging  when  the  original  bodies  should  cease 
to  exist.  He  stated :  "The  essential  difference  between 
my  plan  and  that  proposed  by  Mr.  Miller  is  that  the 
latter  contemplates  an  immediate  merger  of  unities  and 
mine  contemplates  an  organic  absorption  of  unities.  My 
plan  would  go  into  gradual  operation;  that  of  the  laymen 
into  immediate  operation." 

When  asked  for  the  difference  between  a  Federation 
and  a  Unity  of  unities,  he  replied  that 

A  Federation,  while  more  substantial  than  a  league,  is  less 
so  than  a  Union  or  a  Unity.  A  League  is  a  bundle  of  independent 
unities,  tied  together  by  binding  compact  or  by  treaty.  The  bond 
is  external  and  does  not  imply  permanent  control.     A  Federation 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  199 

is  a  series  of  separate  sovereign  states  bound  together  by  a  com- 
pact or  act  of  union  which  is  not  reconstructive  of  the  unities, 
and  which  retains  the  internal  sovereignty  of  each  member  un- 
impaired. The  bond  is  internal,  but  not  reconstructive.  A  Unity 
of  Unities  is  a  final  and  substantial  entity,  in  essence,  in  which 
the  units  permanently  give  over  general  powers  to  the  central 
unity  and  in  which  the  central  unity,  to  the  extent  to  which  it 
has  powers,  governs  the  whole  organism. 

In  the  case  of  our  Church,  the  General  Bodies  would  go  into 
the  higher  unity,  not  under  pressure  of  an  immediate  or  hasty 
merger,  but  would  giv<'.  up  successively  such  functions  as  were 
ready  to  be  merged.  This  leaves  provision  for  the  General  Bodies 
to  exist  until  they  find  themselves  able  to  transfer  all  powers  to 
the  general  unity  and  thus  become  absorbed  in  it. 

As  will  thus  be  seen,  there  was  in  Dr.  Schmauk  that 
sound  Lutheran  instinct  which  discounts  union  for 
union's  sake  but  wants  it  to  be  rooted  in  an  organic  inner 
life.  Church  bodies  should  grow  together  and  not  be 
merely  tied  together.  The  instinct  was  true  to  the  faith 
and  spirit  and  character  of  the  man. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  Quadricentennial  Com- 
mittee had  taken  steps  looking  to  an  immediate  union, 
the  question  was  raised  as  to  its  authority  to  project 
such  a  movement.  An  editorial  appeared  in  The  Luth- 
eran questioning  its  authority.  Both  Drs.  Jacobs  and 
Schmauk,  as  their  correspondence  reveals,  were  opposed 
to  so  sudden  a  welding  together  of  the  bodies  before 
the  bodies  themselves  could  have  an  opportunity  to  move 
in  the  matter.  The  former  had  offered  a  motion  looking 
toward  a  more  deliberate  and  gradual  method  of  unifi- 
cation and  had  expressed  himself  as  opposed  to  precipi- 
tate action.  But  the  die  was  cast.  Union  in  some  way 
and  in  some  form  was  now  to  be  wrought  out,  and  at 
the  Chair's  suggestion  a  committee  was  appointed  to  pre- 
pare a  mode  of  procedure.     (Dr.  Singmaster  later  pre- 


200  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

sented  an  admirable  plan  that  was  adopted).  When  af- 
terwards a  motion  was  made  that  the  presidents  of  the 
three  bodies  appoint  a  committee  to  draft  a  constitution, 
and  that  this  committee  receive  from  the  boards  plans 
as  to  their  merging,  the  final  result  to  be  presented  to 
the  General  Bodies  the  same  year,  the  pathway  was  cleared 
for  the  union  which  took  place  at  New  York  on  November 
11,  1918. 

A  second  sober  thought  on  the  part  of  not  a  few,  en- 
dorsed the  conviction  of  the  President  of  the  General 
Council,  that  haste  could  have  been  made  to  good  ad- 
vantage a  little  more  slowly.  There  were  important  issues 
involved,  and  fears  were  expressed  that  the  Augustana 
Synod,  and  several  German  synods,  might  not  be  willing 
to  enter  so  hard-and-fast  a  merger.  Besides,  such  a  union 
of  the  more  Anglicized  bodies  would  tend  to  alienate  other 
Lutheran  bodies  that  favored  a  Federation  and  thus  post- 
pone the  day  of  ultimate  union.  Dr.  Schmauk  feared 
this  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  or  not  his  fears 
were  well  founded.  As  before  noted,  he  wanted  no 
"Atlantic  Coast  Lutheranism"  that  would  tend  to  foster 
an  Eastern  Lutheranism  as  over  against  a  still  narrower 
and  more  constricted  type  of  Western  Lutheranism.  The 
future  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  this  country  demanded 
a  welding  process  that  would  give  promise  of  linking  both 
together  so  soon  as  nationalistic  peculiarities  should  cease 
to  control  the  situation. 

Three  days  previous  to  the  eventful  meeting  of  the 
Joint  Committee  on  Constitution  on  May  31,  1917,  at 
Harrisburg,  there  appears  in  his  diary  the  brief  notation: 
"Constitution  Matters,  etc."  The  following  day  it  ap- 
pears again  with  the  addition,  "All  working."  (Dr. 
Schmauk  had  called  to  his  assistance  two  men  of  large 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  201 

experience  in  such  matters — Drs.  Weller  and  Keiter — 
and  assigned  them  special  tasks  to  work  out  and  formu- 
late.) The  third  day  it  appears  again,  with  the  words, 
"All  working  till  11.00  P.  M."  added.  Thus  an  elabo- 
rate form  of  Constitution,  embodying  the  essential  ele- 
ments that  found  expression  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  Lutheran  Church,  was  ready  for  that  meeting.  It 
occupied  thirty-two  typewritten  pages  and  many  parts 
of  it  were  written  out  in  thetical  rather  than  constitu- 
tional form  so  as  to  form  the  basis  for  fruitful  discus- 
sion. 

At  a  preliminary  meeting  of  the  presidents  of  the  three 
bodies  about  to  merge,  the  various  articles  of  their  con- 
stitutions were  placed  side  by  side,  only  to  demonstrate 
that  neither  of  them,  nor  all  combined,  could  furnish  a 
satisfactory  basis  for  the  proposed  union.  When  the 
entire  Committee  assembled.  Dr.  Schmauk  offered  to  pre- 
sent his  outline  of  fifteen  "Points  to  be  Considered  in 
Preparing  a  Constitution."  This,  together  with  an  ex- 
haustive statement  of  the  Principles  of  Faith  prepared 
by  Dr.  Jacobs,  Sr.,  then  became  the  basis  for  discussion. 
It  is  enough  to  say,  that  what  was  gained  by  a  rich  ex- 
perience in  Dr.  Schmauk's  fourteen  years'  incumbency 
as  President  of  the  General  Council  has  found  its  way 
into  the  Constitution  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church, 
which  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides  to  be  chiefly  his  crea- 
tion and  his  monument. 

"A    FAR-REACHING   QUESTION" 

His  concern  for  a  union  that  would  embrace  more 
than  the  three  bodies  led  him  to  put  the  question  to  the 
members  of  the  Committee  at  this  Harrisburg  meeting: 
"Will  the  uniting  of  the  Three  General  Bodies  further 


202  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

or  hinder  the  uniting  of  the  Whole  Lutheran  Church  in 
America?" 

To  this  he  gives  the  following  answer : 

It  will   further  it  only  if : 

1.  The  contemplated  step  brings  about  no  splits  of  minorities 
and  the  formation  of  one  or  more  new  bodies ; 

2.  If  the  respect  which  each  of  the  Bodies  now  enjoys  in  the 
eyes  of  bodies  outside  be  not  weakened  and  destroyed; 

3.  If  the  new  body  show  itself  to  be  fair  and  open  to  a 
still  larger  unity; 

4.  Inasmuch  as  the  new  United  Church  will  contain,  at  best, 
only  one-third  of  all  the  Lutherans  in  North  America,  and  prob- 
ably much  less,  and  as  it  may  still  be  overtopped  in  numbers  by 
another  General  Body,  should  not  this  meeting  give  some  con- 
sideration to  an  offer  for  a  proposed  federation  of  all  Lutherans, 
based  to  some  extent  on  the  existing  Ohio  Constitution,  into 
which  the  Augustana  Synod  could  come? 

He  then  outlines  a  "Proposed  Constitution  of  Federa- 
tion" and  suggests  as  a  name  "The  Federated  Alliance 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  America."  Of  this  general 
body  which  was  to  meet  every  five  years,  the  United 
Lutheran  Church  should  then  become  a  part.  Later,  how- 
ever, he  became  convinced  that  such  a  loose  federation 
would  retard  rather  than  promote  unity,  and  it  was  not 
further  considered. 

As  the  first  President  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church, 
Dr.  Knubel,  enthusiastically  told  the  writer:  "It  is  a 
masterpiece  of  its  kind,  and  the  more  I  study  it,  the 
more  I  feel  that  I  would  not  change  a  single  sentence 
or  phrase  in  it."  The  Declaration  on  Catholicity,  which 
in  essence  is  Dr.  Knubel's  creation,  and  which  was  adopted 
at  Washington,  is  a  clear-cut  supplement  and  application 
of  the  principle  of  co-operation  and  is  rooted  in  this 
matchless  constitution.  The  merit  of  Dr.  Schmauk's 
creation  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  steers  clear  of  the  particu- 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  203 

larism  which  federation  would  foster  on  the  one  hand  and 
of  the  centraHzation  of  power  in  the  hands  of  an  Execu- 
tive, or  of  a  Board,  on  the  other. 

FACING    DIFFERENCES    AND    DIFFICULTIES 

In  his  frank  and  open  way,  Dr.  Schmauk  from  the  very 
beginning  insisted  that  differences  in  spirit  and  practice 
should  not  be  ignored,  and  he  prepared  a  "statement  o 
a  preliminary  understanding  as  to  existing  differences  of 
practice  and  possibly  of  principle"  which  reads  as  follows: 

We  who  are  charged  with  providing  a  harmonious  plan  of 
unification,  of  putting  it  into  workable  order,  should  not  ignore 
difficulties,  but  ought  to  consider  and  examine  them  where  they 
exist  and  see  what,  if  anything,  can  be  done  to  prevent  their 
future   appearance  as  a  disruptive   factor. 

We  must  recognize  that  there  are  great  differences  of  prac- 
tice in  the  bodies  attempting  to  unite,  and  in  some  cases  between 

the  bodies.  *  „f   t  „tVi 

Our  hope  is  that  time,  patience,  honest  workmg  out  of  Luth- 
eran principle,  will  tend,  as  always  does  the  power  of  the  truth, 
to  clarify  and  unify  these  things.  Meantime,  so  as  not  to  give 
offence  to  consciences,  or  to  produce  a  more  hopeless  dismtegra- 
tion  than  that  which  we  are  attempting  to  heal,  we  must  allow 
individual  expression  to  both  parties  in  any  case  of  differences, 
and  must  seek  an  honorable  modus  vivendi  under  such  difficulties. 
Our  Constitution,  in  order  to  keep  the  main  track  of  action 
clear  and  unencumbered,  and  to  finally  secure  a  just  solution  of 
these  perplexing  problems,  has  provided  that  they  be  referred  to 
our  Commission  of  Adjudication,  wihich  shall  give  itself  to 
search  for  a  just  fundamental  view  covering  the  case  and  a  modus 
Vivendi  that  will  be  Lutheran  in  principle,  and  fair  m  all  ques- 
tions of  practice.  . 

The  following  are  among  the  questions  of  differmg  practice: 
Open  Pulpits,  Open  Altars.  Revivals,  Great  Movements  of  the 
Day  Federal  Council,  Y.  M.  C.  A.;  Christian  Unity,  Member- 
ship in  Secret  Fraternities  which  have  a  Religion  or  a  Worship 
and  Ritual  of  their  own,  Co-operation  with  other  Denominations. 
There  is  a  difference  between  co-operation  and  fellowship.    The 


204  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

latter  is  a  far  more  intimate  thing.  Co-operation  is  a  working 
together  in  the  support  and  execution  of  a  common  plan  of  action. 
Fellowship  is  a  life  together.  Co-operation  is  a  limited  associa- 
tion for  definite  ends ;  but  fellowship  is  unlimited  association  in 
spiritual  life. 

Modern  Christianity  greatly  abuses  the  principle  of  fellow- 
ship, and  in  so  far  destroys  its  value  and  its  sacredness.  On  the 
grounds  of  a  broad  humanity  it  would  admit  even  those  to  the 
heart  of  the  Church  who  despise  the  precious  merits  of  the 
Head  of  the  Church.  This  is  not  broad-mindedness,  but  latitudina- 
rianism.  As  an  official  act,  to  be  distinguished  from  any  kindly 
spirit  which  may  animate  it,  it  does  injury,  and  is  practically 
disrespect  to  the  name  of  our  Lord,  which  is  the  only  name 
under   Heaven  whereby  we  are  saved. 

We  should  ever  bear  an  open,  loving  and  helpful,  not  a  closed 
attitude  toward  those  outside  of  us  who  hold  honest  convictions 
different  from  our  own,  in  the  fear  of  God  and  with  uncorrupt 
will.  We  should  be  patient,  bearing  all  things,  having  pleasure 
in  approval  rather  than  condemnation;  in  concord  rather  than 
in  discord.  We  should  be  willing  and  anxious  to  co-operate  for 
the  saving  of  souls  and  the  upbuilding  of  Christ's  Kingdom  with 
all  of  God's  children  wheresoever  they  may  be  found.  Yet  we 
are  prevented  from  co-operating  if  thereby  an  injury  is  done 
to  the  blood -bought  treasure,  the  pure  doctrine  of  salvation,  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  for  which  thousands  of  our  fathers 
have  laid  down  home,   friends,   worldly   success   and  life. 

With  those  to  whom  the  purity  of  the  faith  means  little,  or 
means  less  than  friendship,  blood,  practical  success,  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  we  are  in  danger.  A  Church  which  exists  solely 
for  the  sake  of  the  pure  Gospel  principle  cannot  be  asked  to 
commit  itself  to  association  with  any  people,  plan,  teachings,  or 
temperament,  which  derogates  from  the  truth,  or  conveys  the 
impression  that  we  have  loosened  our  hold  and  relaxed  our 
standard  of  the  truth. 

Wherever  we  can  work  with  a  common  Christianity,  with  the 
assurance  that  no  harm,  immediate  or  ultimate,  will  come  to 
our  own  great  purpose  of  witness  to  the  truth,  we  are  ready  to  do 
so  with  joy.  On  the  other  hand,  unwillingness  to  co-operate 
with  others,  if  it  grow  out  of  honest  conviction,  is  not  to  be  taken 
as  sign  of  bigotry,  or  as  evidence  of  a  narrow  outlook,  but  as  a 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  205 

willingness  to  stand  by  one's  convictions,  and  to  be  loyal  to 
Christ  and  His  truth  as  we  see  it. 

Wherever  we  can  co-operate  on  the  foundation  of  unity  in 
doctrine  and  faith  and  in  the  Sacraments,  which  is  the  criterion 
set  up  by  the  Augsburg  Confession,  we  ought  to  do  so;  and 
in  all  cases  we  are  to  possess  the  temper  of  a  sympathetic  mind, 
the  strong  grasp  of  an  honest  heart,  the  sterling  disposition  which 
is  true  at  once  to  faith  and  to  charity,  and  which,  m  the  long  run, 
is  the  only  one  of  ser^-ice  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of  a 
common  Christianity,  a  problem  which  we  did  not  ourselves  cre- 
ate and  which  God  Himself  will  have  a  hand  in  solving. 

This  leads  to  the   following  positions : 

1  We  will  co-operate  with  all  common  movements  with 
which  we  are  on  common  ground,  or  which  show  such  respect 
and  understanding  for  our  ground  as  not  to  minimize  it  or  in- 
volve it  in  peril,  or  which  will  not  lead  to  the  appearance  of 
fellowship  and  unity  where  in  reality  it  does  not  exist. 

2  That  in  any  such  movement  we  are  always  representmg 
our  own  principles  and  practice  and  are  assuming  responsibility 
only  in  those  matters  in  which  we  are  in  complete  harmony  with 
the  principles  and  practice  of  the  movement. 

3  That  individual  liberty  of  co-operation  is  to  be  determmed 
by  the  official  declarations  of  the  Church  on  the  subject,  and  that 
committees  and  fraternal  delegates  are  to  go  only  so  far  as 
they  represent  the  principles  and  declarations  of  the  Church. 

DR.  SCHMAUK'S  IDEAL  OF  THE  MERGER 
When  once  his  conviction  was  formed  that  in  the 
Providence  of  God  the  time  for  this  umon  had  come, 
he  poured  the  whole  energy  of  heart  and  soul  into  it 
and  became  the  very  incarnation  of  the  project.  What 
may  be  termed  a  sort  of  salutatory  and  prophecy  of  the 
Merger  finds  expression  in  these  words  of  his  which 
appeared  in  The  Lutheran  previous  to  the  New  York 
Convention : 

My  ideal  of  the  Merger  is  to  get  together  what  belongs  to- 
gether in  Christ.  It  is  to  make  supreme,  over  all  incidental 
issues   of    territorialism,    culture,    language,    or    other    incidentals. 


206  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

our  common  conviction,  trust,  faith  in  the  Gospel  as  we  see  it 
in  its  world-conquering  power.  It  is  to  knit  together  into  a  com- 
mon organism  and  active  life  all  those  who  are  in  the  unity  of 
the  faith.  Instead  of  an  aggregation  or  string  of  tiny  jangling 
bells,  whose  confused  notes  often  neutralize  each  other,  it  is  to 
fuse  our  precious  metal  into  one  great  and  deep-throated  cathe- 
dral bell  of  testimony,  whose  tones,  ringing  true  to  the  precious 
metal  of  which  it  is  composed,  shall  vibrate  its  music  of  testimony 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

But  this  is  not  to  be  a  mechanical  consolidation,  inspired  by 
mere  economic  or  other  secondary  motives.  The  fervor  of  our 
original  individual  life  is  not  to  be  asphyxiated,  crushed,  or  evapo- 
rated out  of  us.  The  most  delicate  flower  of  individuality,  as 
God  has  created  it  in  us,  and  as  Christ  has  nourished  it  by  His 
Holy  Spirit,  is  not  to  be  destroyed  by  the  mechanism  of  unifor- 
mity. We  are  dealing  with  organic  life,  the  life  of  the  Spirit, 
and  not  with  inert  masses.  Our  problem  is  to  grow  into  lib- 
erty and  unity,  one  and  inseparable.  No  one  is  forcing  this 
movement  of  growth  by  a  hot-house  process. 

We  are  living  today  in  a  world  ferment  such  as  has  not  oc- 
curred for  many  ages.  Providence  has  furnished  us  an  oppor- 
tunity in  this  period  of  the  rise  of  world  movements  among 
nations,  which  will  not  come  to  us  again  for  generations.  The 
nations  of  the  earth,  orient  and  Occident,  are  acting  together  in 
great  and  common  volume  such  as  has  never  been  known  before. 
The  mind  of  the  country  is  being  educated  to  look  to  essential 
movements,  and  to  drop  that  which  is  secondary.  Everything 
is  being  organized  along  the  line  of  its  greatest  strength  and  for 
the  attainment  of  its  supreme  purpose. 

The  American  nation  has  been  roused  to  enter  the  war  for  the 
purpose  of  upholding  its  own  highest  ideals,  and  of  making  them 
permanently  effective  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Such  days 
as  we  are  living  in,  big  with  issues  of  the  future,  have  never 
dawned  on  any  American  generation.  Shall  the  secular  forces 
of  humanity  combine  into  a  mighty  brotherhood,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  common  ideals  and  for  the  execution  of  ultimate  pur- 
poses, while  the  brotherhood  of  the  Lord  lags  far  in  the  rear  in 
fragmentary  confession  of  its  faith?  Our  faith  is  the  sublim- 
est  of  all  ideals,  and  if  men  of  the  world,  appreciating  the  crisis 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  207 

into  which  it  has  been  brought  today,  are  willing  to  offer  life  and 
treasure  for  the  common  cause,  the  Church  of  our  Lord,  with 
an  ideal  higher,  more  glorious,  and  more  imperishable  than  them 
all,  must  assert  her  loyalty  to  her  cause,  must  reveal  her  inner 
unity  of  faith  in  her  actual  brotherhood  of  life,  and  must  step 
forth  in  the  confidence  of  her  strength  in  her  victorious  Lord 
to  do  things,  to  convince  hearts,  and  to  measure  up  to  her  oppor- 
tunities, far  more  fully  than  she  has  attempted  in  the  past. 

WORKING  FOR  THE  MERGER 
The  years  1917  and  1918  proved  to  be  extremely  busy 
and  eventful  and  made  heavy  demands  upon  his  stren^h 
and  energy.  As  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee to  prepare  for  the  merging  of  the  three  bodies, 
and  as  President  of  the  General  Council  to  keep  the 
Swedes  and  Germans  in  sympathy  with  the  movement, 
an  enormous  amount  of  labor  and  responsibility  fell  to 
his  lot  which,  added  to  his  pastoral,  professorial,  literary 
and  other  activities,  often  made  him  feel  like  an  Atlas 
carrying  the  world  on  his  shoulders.  Notwithstanding 
many  serious  physical  breakdowns,  he  did  an  amount  of 
work  which  it  would  have  been  foolish  for  even  three 
gifted  men  to  attempt.  Protests  on  the  part  of  physi- 
cians and  friends  seemed  useless;  for  the  zeal  of  the 
Lord's  House  had  eaten  him  up.  A  crisis  was  upon  the 
Church  and,  whatever  might  happen  to  his  body,  his 
spirit  must  toil  on  in  spite  of  the  frail  tenement  in  which 
it  was  encased.  That  indomitable  will  of  his  kept  the 
spirit  functioning,  and  it  often  seemed  as  if  he  lived  more 
out  of  the  body  than  in  the  body.  However  far  afield 
his  spirit  might  roam,  it  bore  on  its  wings  the  motto, 
"I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  that  sent  me  while  it  is 
day,  for  the  night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work." 

When  friends  in  several  synods  wrote  to  him  expressing 
misgivings  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  Merger,  he  poured 


208  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

forth  long  letters  giving  reasons  why  the  Merger  could 
no  longer  be  delayed.  To  those  who  feared  that  the  Luth- 
eran Church's  position  against  secretism  and  union- 
ism would  be  jeopardized,  he  writes  that  these  dangers 
cannot  be  warded  off  by  legislation  and  discipline,  but 
by  an  earnest  and  conscientious  educational  process.  He 
complains  that  if  the  Ohio,  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Michigan 
and  other  synods  had  united  with  the  General  Council  in 
1867  and  adopted  its  educational  method  of  dealing  with 
these  issues,  the  outlook  for  future  historic  Lutheranism 
in  this  country  would  today  be  very  much  brighter.  He 
maintained  that  while  Secretism  was  not  specifically  pro- 
hibited in  the  Scriptures,  it  was  beyond  a  doubt  a  valid 
deduction  from  the  Scriptures  that  it  was  an  evil  which 
Christians  must  avoid.  "Should  we  withdraw  from  this 
Merger,  or  should  we  enter  it  and  cast  the  weight  of 
our  teaching  and  influence  against  the  evil?"  is  his  ques- 
tion. "If  the  Lord  desires  this  movement,  we  should 
not  stand  against  it.  If  He  does  not  desire  it,  we  should 
oppose  it" — such  are  his  concluding  words. 

The  affection  and  confidence  he  had  won  from  brethren 
in  the  New  York  Ministerium,  and  the  Canada  and  Mani- 
toba Synods,  enabled  him  after  much  effort  to  win  their 
support  for  the  Merger.  When  the  General  Council  met 
in  Philadelphia  and  celebrated  its  Golden  Jubilee  in  the 
fall  of  1917,  the  way  had  been  so  well  prepared  by  its 
President  (with  the  aid  of  Drs.  Weller,  Keiter  and  Frank 
Fry)  for  union  with  the  other  two  Bodies  that  not  a 
dissenting  voice  was  raised  against  it.  The  meeting  in 
Witherspoon  Hall,  with  committees  from  the  sister  bodies, 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  It  proved  to  be  a  sort  of  tri- 
umphal procession  into  the  "delightful  Canaan"  of  a  re- 
united Lutheranism  that  was  to  be  given  its  final  seal  a 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  209 

year  later.  Iowa  was  present  in  the  person  of  a  repre- 
sentative to  declare  that  a  fifty  years'  wooing  was  now 
to  be  ended,  and  Dr.  Schmauk  replied  that  if  Iowa  had 
been  won,  she  would  now  be  in  a  position  to  help  de- 
cide whether  the  General  Council  should  enter  the  Merger 
— otherwise  not.  No  one  could  have  been  more  loathe 
to  surrender  the  Council's  identity  and  speak  the  vale- 
dictory than  was  its  President;  but  his  eye  was  on  the 
Lutheran  Church's  future  and  not  on  a  particular  organ- 
ized part  of  it,  and  he  made  the  sacrifice  manfully  and 
hopefully.  The  one  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  his  high  hopes 
was  the  defection  of  the  Augustana  Synod  at  its  meet- 
ing in  Minneapolis  on  June  13,  1918.  After  hours  of 
debate  and  in  spite  of  strong  pleas  on  the  part  of  such 
leaders  as  Drs.  Abrahamson,  Brandelle  and  Lindberg, 
warm  friends  of  the  General  Council,  the  vote  against 
the  Merger  carried  and  the  delegation  from  the  East, 
headed  by  Dr.  Jacobs,  flashed  the  telegram  over  the  wires 
to  Lebanon:    "Augustana  will  not  enter  the  Merger." 

AGAINST  COALITIONS  IN   THE  CHURCH 

In  a  new  body,  such  as  that  which  was  to  be  formed 
by  a  union  of  the  General  Council,  the  General  Synod 
and  the  United  Synod  South,  it  was  inevitable  that  much 
concern  as  to  who  should  be  its  executive  head  should 
be  felt  by  leading  men  in  the  Church.  It  was  quite  natural 
that  some  should  be  apprehensive  as  to  what  the  future 
of  the  merged  Church  would  be  were  it  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  an  unsafe  leadership.  It  was  that  fear  which 
induced  him  to  allow  the  convention  in  New  York  to 
express  itself  by  vote  either  for  or  against  his  election, 
though  it  was  contrary  to  his  personal  inclination,  as  ex- 
pressed by  him  to  many  of  his  friends,  to  assume  the 
responsibility  of  leadership  in  the  new  body  which  they 
O 


210  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

believed  him  eminently  qualified  for.  When  he  learned 
that  coalitions  were  being  arranged  in  behalf  of  certain 
men,  himself  included,  and  when  he  and  certain  others 
received  letters  with  a  view  to  forming  some  such  com- 
binations, he  became  conscious  of  a  grave  danger  that 
was  threatening  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  proposed 
union  at  the  very  start  and  set  himself  like  a  flint  against 
it.  While  thoroughly  sympathizing  with  these  friends, 
not  of  his  own  body,  in  their  anxiety  as  to  the  future 
leadership,  he  left  no  doubt  as  to  where  he  stood  on  this 
very  important  question.  It  alarmed  him  to  think  that 
church  politics,  so  much  in  evidence  in  other  ecclesiastical 
bodies,  might  find  its  way  into  the  United  Lutheran 
Church  also.  These  letters  reflect  the  true  character  of 
the  man,  and  parts  are  well  worth  quoting. 

As  I  seem  to  be  involved  in  this  matter,  I  must  in  self-defense 
say  that  I  am  no  politician.  I  believe  in  the  control  of  move- 
ments, and  my  whole  strength  has  been  exerted  in  that  direction, 
and  I  feel  that  the  new  Church  would  never  have  been  what  it 
is,  if  a  number  of  the  men  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
had  not  worked  day  and  night  to  secure  the  present  results. 
But  I  draw  the  line  at  men. 

I  have  always  felt  that  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty,  and  es- 
pecially of  Christian  liberty,  requires  that  a  man  vote  in  accord- 
ance with  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience,  and  that  the  Church 
of  the  Lord  ought  set  an  example  in  this  matter.  Therefore  I 
am  no  politician.  I  have  never  been  a  candidate  for  any  office, 
and  any  honor  that  the  Church  bestowed  on  me  would  be  bought 
too  dearly  if  I  had  to  manoeuver  or  manipulate  for  it. 

I  have  never,  to  my  knowledge,  expressed  the  desire  or  a  will- 
ingness to  hold  any  office,  with  a  solitary  exception,  and  that 
was  in  connection  with  the  directorate  of  the  Philadelphia  Semi- 
nary. [He  then  gives  his  deep  concern  for  the  welfare  of  the 
institution  as  a  reason.]  I  have  been  President  of  the  General 
Council  for  quite  a  long  period  of  years,  but  I  never  would  have 
accepted  this   office  or  any  other  on   a  mere   majority   vote,   or 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  211 

on  any  vote  less  than  one  which  would  make  me  feel  that  the 
Lord  had  called  me  to  that  particular  duty,  and  that  I  had  the 
confidence  of  practically  the  whole  constructive  part  of  the  body. 

Like  other  men,  I  see  what  I  think  I  can  do  in  organizing 
work,  but  I  do  not  believe  it  to  be  right  to  engage  in  it  in  the 
Church  unless  there  is  a  divine  call  coming  from  those  duly 
authorized  to  speak.  The  honors  of  public  office  do  not  appeal 
to  me  in  taste,  and  while  I  do  feel  deeply  hurt  and  cut  to  the  quick 
when  I  am  ignored  or  pressed  to  the  wall  by  the  selfishness  of 
others,  I  do  not  resent  or  resist,  but  my  impulse  is  to  at  once  step 
down  and  out. 

With  this  feeling,  and  my  solicitude  respecting  the  United 
Lutheran  Church,  you  can  see  that  I  could  not  deliberately  be- 
come active  in  maneuvering  for  the  candidacy  of  any  one,  in- 
cluding myself,  for  office  in  The  United  Lutheran  Church.  If 
it  is  once  demonstrated  that  methods  such  as  these  have  pre- 
vailed, I  might  feel  the  call  to  antagonize  them  with  all  my 
heart,  or  to  drop  entirely  out  of  the  ranks. 

That  this  is  my  real  innermost  position,  so  far  as  my  own 
public  life  is  concerned,  should  be  evident  to  any  one  who  knows 
me.  I  have  remained  pastor  of  the  only  congregation  that  I  ever 
served  now  for  thirty-five  years,  in  spite  of  temptations  that  have 
come  to  take  me  into  higher  fields. 

I  feel  that  the  United  Church  should  seek  to  do  the  right 
thing,  irrespective  of  old  parties,  and  past  conflicts,  and  should 
rise  above  them,  and  act  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God. 

This  registers  his  conviction  that  conscience  should 
enter  into  a  delegate's  vote  and  that  no  Christian  can  feel 
that  he  is  divinely  called  to  an  office  in  the  Church  when 
elected  by  worldly  political  methods.  He  did  not  stand 
alone  in  the  fear  that  such  methods  might  find  their  way 
into  The  United  Lutheran  Church. 

THE  CONVENTION   IN  NEW  YORK 

Dr.  Schmauk  came  to  the  Merger  Convention  in  New 
York  on  November  11th,  just  after  the  bells  had  rung 
out  their  glad  notes  that  the  World  War  had  ended  and 
that  peace  had  come,  in  buoyant  spirits,  seemingly  more 


212  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

vigorous  than  usual.  As  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and 
Means  Committee,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  preside  at  the  meet- 
ing while  the  details  necessary  for  the  consummation 
of  the  Union  were  being  attended  to  in  business  session. 
These  had  been  so  thoroughly  prepared  and  were  so  ably 
presented  by  the  Chairman  as  to  require  little  more  than 
perfunctory  motions  to  make  The  United  Lutheran  Church 
an  established  fact.  When  the  necessary  work  on  Nov.  15th 
was  done,  the  temporary  President  turned  to  the  three 
delegations,  greeted  each  with  the  word  "United",  and 
declared  that  now  The  United  Lutheran  Church  in  Amer- 
ica had  become  a  reality.  The  jubilation  of  the  assembly 
found  fitting  expression  in  the  singing  of  the  grand  old 
hymn,  "Now  Thank  We  All  Our  God." 

The  towering  personality  and  the  leading  and  inspiring 
genius  of  that  Convention  was  by  common  consent  ad- 
mitted to  be  Dr.  Schmauk.  Had  the  question  of  service 
and  leadership  been  decisive  in  the  election  for  the  presi- 
dency that  followed,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  become 
the  first  President  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church.  He 
deserved  the  honor  if  ever  man  did.  But  he  lacked  the 
necessary  votes.  The  General  Synod  delegation  was  con- 
siderably larger  than  that  of  the  General  Council,  and 
while  he  led  in  the  first  two  ballots,  it  became  evident 
that  a  man  from  the  General  Synod  would  be  accorded 
that  honor,  and  Dr.  Schmauk  more  than  once  stated  that 
he  rejoiced  that  so  safe  and  conservative  a  man  as  Dr. 
Knubel  had  been  chosen  to  that  high  position.  With 
characteristic  sincerity  and  nobleness  of  spirit  Dr.  Knubel 
soon  after  the  Convention  asked  for  the  hearty  support 
and  co-operation  of  Dr.  Schmauk  in  the  following  earnest 
words : 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  213 

Dear  Dr.  Schmauk: 

It  is  difficult  for  me  to  express  to  you  all  that  is  in  my  heart. 
Please  try,  however,  to  understand  to  the  limit  what  I  mean 
when  I  say  that  I  should  feel  it  impossible  to  do  anything  of 
this  new  work  unless  I  had  your  heart's  sympathy  and  prayer, 
and  your  great  wise  help.  All  of  this  I  am  convinced  that  I  have 
from  you.  The  evidence  is  plain  to  me  both  from  your  words 
and  from  your  constant  actions  throughout  the  sessions.  You 
can  scarcely  know  how  this  upheld  me.  I  felt  like  a  child  in 
taking  hold  of  the  work.  I  was  and  am  confident  of  Christ's 
unfailing  grace,  yet  it  seemed  to  me  that  a  large  measure  of 
that  grace  must  come  to  me  through  you.  The  passing  hours 
and  days  of  the  Convention  increasingly  manifested  the  nobility 
of  your  spirit  and  of  your  readiness  to  stand  by. 

What  is  ahead  of  us  none  of  us  can  know.  We  are  sure,  how- 
ever, that  even  larger  and  truer  things  for  our  Church  are  being 
held  before  us  by  our  Lord.  We  must  unfailingly  trust  His  con- 
stant provision  for  our  need.  Your  own  experience  and  knowl- 
edge and  wisdom  are  a  great  asset.  Thus  it  is  that  I  feel  so 
grateful  because  of  what  these  mean  for  the  Church  and  of  what 
they  mean   for  me  in  my  position. 

Thanking   you   then  once   more   and   asking   you   to    know   the 
fullness  of  what  I  have  written,  I  am 
Very  sincerely, 

F.  H.  Knubel. 

With  equal  sincerity  and  frankness  Dr.  Schmauk  re- 
plies as  follows  on  November  25,  1918: 

My  dear  Dr.  Knubel : 

Yours  of  the  20th  is  before  me  and  I  deeply  appreciate  its 
devout  and  spiritual  tone.  I  feel  that  you  and  I  are  surely  at 
one  on  the  oneness  of  the  Gospel,  and  on  the  necessity  of  the 
preeminence  of  the  Spirit  in  the  workings  of  the  Church. 

My  heart  rejoices  to  have  found  a  man  who  desires  to  draw 
his  strength  from  things  spiritual  and  to  know  that  it  is  such 
an  one  who  is  at  the  head  of  our  beloved  Zion. 

When  you  made  your  persistent  argument  for  the  word  "Evan- 
gelical" in  the  Joint  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  I  felt  the  same 
way,  and  though  I  may  possibly  have  taken  the  opposite  position 


214  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

— I  do  not  recall— I  really  was  most  heartily  at  one  with  you  in 
all  that  underlay  your  words.  I  do  not  see  the  use  of  organism, 
organization,  finance,  and  earthly  results,  if  the  Gospel  and  the 
spiritual  reconstruction  of  man  by  the  Spirit  through  the  Word 
be  not  kept  central. 

As  to  my  co-operation,  it  is  most  genuine  and  hearty  on  this 
basis,  as  well  as  along  many  lines  of  principle  that  are  common 
between  us.  And  since  you  have  now  spoken  several  times  con- 
cerning it,  it  is  probably  right  that  I  speak  to  you  frankly  and 
confidentially  on  the  subject.  I  will  put  down  my  thoughts  in 
the  order  in  which  they  came  to  me  during  this  ecclesiastical 
evolution,  and  without  any  designed  logical   connection. 

As  the  letter  is  very  long,  it  is  possible  only  to  give 
the  gist  of  it.  He  states  that  to  co-operate  in  the  highest 
sense,  it  will  be  necessary  for  him  to  be  placed  in  the 
inner  circle  of  confidence  where  he  can  have  "the  oppor- 
tunity of  helping  constructively  to  form  the  original 
judgment  while  the  matter  is  still  in  plastic  stage."  He 
is  willing,  however,  to  co-operate  in  the  outer  circle  in 
the  support  of  any  enterprise  or  plan,  even  if  it  does  not 
come  before  him  in  its  initial  plastic  stage,  provided  he 
can  be  "heartily  in  favor  of  it."  He  then  adds:  "But 
if  I  believe  it  to  be  the  wrong  thing,  or  the  right  thing 
with  a  poor  method,  I  must  reserve  to  myself  the  liberty 
of  opposing  it."  As  life  is  short,  he  feels  the  need  of 
"selecting  such  things  as  seem  to  demand  originative  ac- 
tivity." There  are  so  many  spheres  in  which  he  feels 
"called  to  act  creatively"  that  he  has  great  reluctance  "to 
stand  by  that  which,"  as  he  says,  "I  have  not  compre- 
hended from  the  start  in  its  length  and  breadth." 

Should  Dr.  Knubel  prefer  to  have  his  co-operation  "in 
the  outer  circle,"  he  will  most  heartily  and  readily  give 
it,  but  would  like  the  assurance  that  no  offense  will  be 
taken  should  he  be  obliged  to  oppose  any  plan  or  project, 
or  should  he  fail  to  participate  where  he  does  not  fully 


THE  UNITED  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  215 

understand  for  lack  of  an  inner  knowledge.  In  such  par- 
tial co-operation,  he  asks  "the  full  right  to  make  original 
contribution"  in  matters  he  believes  he  understands  with- 
out regard  to  what  may  have  been  planned  without  his 
participation. 

Should  Dr.  Knubel  desire  more  close  and  intimate  co- 
operation, he  will  cheerfully  give  it.  He  believes  himself 
to  be  in  full  inner  accord  with  the  spirit,  principles  and 
aims  of  the  President  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church, 
but  realizes  that  "there  are  certain  principles,  views  and 
persons  whose  influence  on  the  Church  if  it  be  allowed 
to  go  permanently  into  their  control  will  become  sub- 
versive of  a  great  part  of  what  you  and  I  stand  for,"  and 
he  expects  to  oppose  whatever  he  regards  as  likely  to 
threaten  the  future  welfare  of  the  Church.  He  is  ready 
to  pour  out  his  whole  heart  in  confidence  in  this  intimate 
co-operation  with  the  understanding  that  the  confidence 
be  reciprocated.  Nor  should  this  confidential  dealing 
abridge  the  President's  freedom  of  action  in  any  wise, 
just  as  little  as  his  own  freedom  would  be  abridged. 

I  am  willing  to  trust  you  to  the  uttermost  [he  says]  and  want 
to  feel  that  in  consulting  me  you  are  simply  helping  to  form  your 
own  judgment  as  the  final  arbiter  and  not  getting  information  of 
which  others  shall  be  the  judge.  Nor  do  I  mean  to  cut  you  off 
from  any  other  source  which  you  may  desire  to  have,  whether 
external  or  confidential,  whether  opposed  to  me  or  not,  pro- 
viding that  the  faith  between  you  and  me  be  kept. 

So  then  two  ways  of  co-operation  are  possible,  first,  one  in 
which  I  take  no  initiative,  or  if  I  take  it  do  so  at  my  own  risk, 
and  in  which  you  ask  for  my  help  after  the  plan  has  been  pre- 
pared. The  other  is  co-operation  in  which  you  and  I  discuss 
conditions  creatively  and  intimately  and  in  which  I  put  you  on 
the  inside  and  you  put  me  on  the  inside,  so  far  as  our  own  com- 
mon comprehension  is  concerned,  and  in  which  you  agree  to 
keep  my  treasures  safe  in  the  degree  to  which  I  am  frank  with 


216  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

you,  without  however  depriving  yourself  of  the  freedom  to  con- 
sult and  be  guided  by  any  others,  except  the  handing  over  of  that 
which  I  would  not  want  to  have  betrayed. 

My  reason  for  being  so  exceedingly  frank  is  because  we  are 
standing  at  the  beginning  of  a  long  period  of  work,  and  because 
in  my  judgment  it  is  absolutely  essential — for  we  are  both  high- 
strung  and  keenly  sensitive  as  to  honorable  dealings — to  provide 
a  way  which  will  be  well  understood  by  both  of  us,  and  in  which 
we  both  can  work  comfortably  and  feel  mutually  assured  of  the 
perfect  squareness  and  the  affection  of  the  other,  and  can  avoid 
any  embarrassment  of  apparent  complicity  which  despite  our  best 
efforts  may  arise  on  the  surface  of  things. 

If  we  can  find  a  fimdamental  basis  of  common  trust  as  be- 
tween each  other,  we  can  get  along  finely  and  helpfully,  whether 
our  co-operation  be  only  in  the  outer  circle,  or  in  any  one  of 
the  concentric  circles   converging  toward   the   center. 

This  was  simply  a  plea  for  co-operation  on  the  basis 
of  full  mutual  understanding  and  confidence,  without 
which  no  real  co-operation  is  possible. 

DR.   KNUBEL'S   CHRISTMAS   GREETING    (1919) 

Following  is  a  greeting  from  Dr.  Knubel  to  his  chief 
helper : 

"It  is  impossible  to  send  greetings  to  all  to  whom  I  should  like 
to  send  them,  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  a  word  of  fervent 
thanks  to  the  Executive  Board  at  this  Christmas,  one  year  after 
the  United  Church's  life.  Next  to  the  Lord  of  Christmas,  you 
have  been  my  support — and  you  have  been  wonderful.  May  that 
Lord  give  you  richly  real  Christmas  joy. 
Gratefully, 

F.  H.  Knubel. 

THE    NATIONAL    LUTHERAN    COUNCIL 

The  work  of  the  Lutheran  War  Commission  had 
brought  the  various  Lutheran  bodies  co-operating  to 
recognize  the  need  of  some  organized  form  of  affiliation 
in  the   future,   after   the  war   should   be  ended.      Some 


THE  NATIONAL  LUTHERAN   COUNCIL  217 

thought  of  making  the  War  Commission  the  basis  of  such 
an  affiHation  by  giving  it  new  functions  for  co-operartion 
in  external  matters.  Dr.  Schmauk  at  once  recognized 
the  futihty  of  estabHshing  a  co-operative  unity  on  such  a 
basis,  and  together  with  Dr.  H.  A.  Weller,  then  president 
of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  prepared  a  form  of 
organization  for  v^^hat  was  at  that  time  termed  a  "Luth- 
eran Federal  Council."  The  originator  of  the  idea  was 
not  Dr.  Schmauk  but  Dr.  Weller;  but  when  once  it  took 
root  in  his  own  mind,  he  became  its  advocate  and  con- 
structive genius. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  presidents  in  Harrisburg  in  the 
summer  of  1918,  an  outline  for  organization  was  pre- 
sented by  him,  and  when  later  at  a  gathering  of  represen- 
tatives from  the  various  bodies  held  in  Pittsburgh  on 
August  1,  1918  (at  which  meeting  Dr.  Weller  acted  as 
his  representative),  the  War  Commission-basis  idea  was 
again  pressed,  it  was  decided,  after  considerable  dis- 
cussion, that  a  freshly-constituted  meeting  of  represen- 
tatives should  be  called,  to  assemble  in  Chicago  on 
September  6th.  At  this  meeting  Dr.  Schmauk  was  pres- 
ent, accompanied  by  Drs.  Weller,  Keiter,  C.  M.  Jacobs, 
Krauss,  Stump  and  Rev.  G.  K.  Rubrecht  to  represent 
the  General  Council.  When  it  was  learned  that  a  meet- 
ing of  representatives  from  other  Lutheran  bodies  had 
met  the  day  previous  in  Minneapolis  and  agreed  to  urge 
upon  this  assembly  the  organization  of  a  "Lutheran 
Federation  for  co-operation  in  external  matters,"  and 
when  the  presidents  in  preliminary  session  sprang  this 
idea  upon  him,  he  protested  against  it  with  all  the  vigor  at 
his  command  and  was  prepared  to  leave  Chicago  with 
his  delegation  forthwith.  However,  the  latter  prevailed 
upon   him   to   remain  and   when  all  the  representatives 


218  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

assembled,  he  was  asked  to  present  his  paper,  "as  a 
possible  form  of  organization  of  a  National  Lutheran 
Council."  He  did  so,  and  it  passed  item  by  item  without 
change  or  amendment  and  "The  National  Lutheran 
Council"  became  a  fact.  It  was  he  who  nominated  Dr. 
H,  G.  Stub  as  its  first  president.  While  he  counselled 
much  with  Dr.  Knubel  and  others  and  did  much  to  help 
shape  the  policy  of  the  Council,  he  was  glad  to  place 
on  other  shoulders  the  responsibility  for  the  direction  of 
its  aflfairs.  His  interest  was  most  deeply  manifested  in  the 
creative  period ;  that  having  passed,  he  asked  to  be  re- 
lieved from  participation  as  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  though  he  was  by  no  means  indifferent  to 
its  workings  and  desired  to  be  kept  informed.  While 
Dr.  Schmauk  was  not  present  at  the  Chicago  Conference 
on  Faith  and  Practice,  it  goes  without  saying  that  no 
one  present  was  more  deeply  concerned  or  more  alive 
to  the  issues  at  stake  than  was  he. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
The  Closing  of  a  Strenuous  Life 

/  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have 
kept  the  faith;  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of 
righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  shall  give  me 
at  that  day.— 2  Tim.  4:7,  8. 

DR.  SCHMAUK,  as  has  already  been  indi- 
cated, conducted  a  marvelously  voluminous 
correspondence.  He  would  sometimes  dash 
off  letters  of  great  length  that  were  comprehensive 
and  brilliant  in  thought.  He  often  answered  letters 
under  a  spell  of  real  inspiration,  letters  that 
would  bear  publication  as  telling  articles  on  timely 
subjects.  He  worked  methodically  and  under  fixed 
routine,  and  would  be  much  disturbed  when  his  routine 
was  broken  into.  He  never  opened  letters  from  others 
until  he  was  ready  to  answer  them,  so  as  to  have  the 
advantage  of  a  first  impression.  In  the  mornings,  when 
preparing  to  take  the  train  for  the  Seminary,  he  would 
hurriedly  eat  his  breakfast,  and,  with  a  stenographer  at 
hand,  dictate  letters  while  eating.  He  worked  till  late 
in  the  night,  and  sometimes  allowed  himself  but  five 
or  six  hours  of  sleep. 

Nor  did  he  lose  his  hold  on  his  pastoral  work  in  the 
congregation.  In  spite  of  the  assistance  rendered  by  his 
associate  pastor,  A.  W.  Liebensperger,  during  his  busiest 
years,  he  kept  in  close  touch  with  his  people  and  did  a 
large  share  of  the  pastoral  work.  His  diary  shows  that 
he  kept  up  a  systematic  visitation  of  the  sick  and  needy, 
and  often  under  great  physical  disability.     To  him,  the 


220  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

call  to  preach  and  teach  the  Gospel  and  to  minister  to 
souls  was  the  supreme  obligation  of  the  ordained  minister. 
It  was  the  very  capstone  in  the  arch  of  his  many-sided 
activities  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Irresistible  as  was  his  impulse  to  plunge  into  the  larger 
work  of  the  Church,  had  he  been  forced  to  choose  be- 
tween the  two  spheres  of  activity,  he  would,  as  he  more 
than  once  expressed  himself,  have  labored  as  a  preacher 
and  a  pastor  rather  than  as  an  administrator  or  pro- 
fessor, much  as  he  loved  the  work  of  the  latter. 

Notwithstanding  that  he  had  been  relieved  of  official 
responsibility  when  the  General  Council  ceased  to  func- 
tion, the  year  1919  was  filled  with  issues  and  engage- 
ments of  great  importance.  It  was  the  testing  period 
of  The  United  Lutheran  Church.  To  him  it  was  perhaps 
the  most  trying  year  of  his  life.  Would  this  newly  formed 
body  stand  firm  as  over  against  the  vagaries  in  faith 
and  life  and  practice  which  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs 
in  the  world  had  washed  as  so  much  rubbish  on  the 
shores  of  the  Church?  This  was  his  great  concern. 
The  interests  of  the  faith — rather  than  those  of  any 
particular  Lutheran  Church  body — were  dear  to  his  heart 
and  caused  him  much  anxious  thought,  and  at  intervals 
grave  apprehension.  The  spirit  of  the  times,  with  its 
superficial  and  spectacular  movements  in  Church  and 
State,  made  him  feel  deeply  the  crisis  of  the  hour.  Be- 
sides, much  projected  and  unfinished  work — particu- 
larly the  proposed  revision  and  simplification  of  the 
Graded  Sunday  School  System — weighed  heavily  on  his 
mind  and  heart. 

In  1920  a  voluminous  correspondence  (in  addition  to 
the  two  latest  books  he  issued)  was  conducted  concerning 
important  issues  connected  with  The  United  Lutheran 


CLOSING   OF   A    STRENUOUS    LIFE  221 

Church,    European    Relief,    Sunday    School    Work,    the 
Interchurch  Movement,  and  the  like. 

The  amount  of  thought  and  energy  he  expended  dur- 
ing the  last  two  months  of  his  life  on  vital  matters  that 
lay  next  to  his  heart  goes  far  to  explain  why  the  end 
came  so  soon  afterwards.  Cares  and  concerns  multi- 
plied and  his  soul  was  much  in  travail.  He  lost  much 
of  his  wonted  buoyancy  of  spirit.  That  buoyancy  was 
always  nature's  best  restorer  in  his  case.  Absorbed  as 
he  was  in  the  many  interests  and  problems  of  the  Church, 
it  was  useless  for  friends  to  expostulate  with  him  and 
seek  to  induce  him  to  take  a  needed  rest. 

He  returned  from  a  strenuous  meeting  of  the  Sun- 
day School  Board  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church  at 
Harrisburg  showing  signs  of  weariness.  He  seemed 
much  depressed. 

DR.    SCHMAUK'S    LAST    SERMON 

His  last  sermon,  preached  with  much  labor  on  Feb. 
29,  1920,  was  on  the  text  found  in  the  sixty-third  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah  and  the  third  verse :  "I  have  trodden  the 
wine-press  alone."  According  to  his  notes,  it  began 
thus: 

"This  is  the  cry  of  a  soul  out  of  the  far  past.  It  has  the  pathos 
of  a  great  sorrow  and  strikes  the  deepest  chord  of  the  human 
heart.  The  appeal  of  a  noble  grief  is  profound  and  universal. 
It  is  one  of  the  strange  things  of  life  that  sorrow,  which  we  treat 
as  an  enemy,  from  which  we  shrink  and  which  we  seek  to  banish, 
counting  ourselves  happy  only  when  sorrow  is  absent — that  un- 
welcome sorrow  is  the  angel  that  opens  the  heart  to  life's  most 
precious  treasures.  The  memory  of  a  great  sorrow  is  never  for- 
gotten, but  becomes  richer  and  more  ennobling  as  the  years  go 
on.  David's  grief  over  the  loss  of  Jonathan  and  his  lament  for 
Absalom;  Rizpah's  lonely  watch  on  the  rock  of  Gilboa;  Job's 
soul   cry   in  his   uncertainty   as   to   the   goodness  of    God, — never 


222  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

lose  their  power  of  appeal  to  the  human  heart.  Deep  calleth  into 
deep  in  them. 

"The  words  of  our  text  come  from  the  book  of  Isaiah,  and 
from  a  time  when  Israel  was  in  captivity.  The  Hebrew  nation 
was  humiliated  before  the  world  and  left  crushed  and  bleeding 
in  the  dust.  But  it  should  not  perish  forever.  It  should  become 
the  suffering  servant  of  Jehovah.  There  should  arise  in  its 
midst  out  of  the  bruised  nation  One  whose  face  indeed  was 
marred  more  than  the  face  of  any  man — One  who  was  stricken, 
smitten  of  God  and  afflicted — One  who  was  despised  and  rejected 
of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief.  The  piteous 
becomes  glorious  in  beauty  and  power. 

"This  silent  Sufferer,  who  as  a  sheep  ibefore  his  shearers  is 
dumb,  has  saving  power.  It  pleases  the  Lord  to  bruise  Him  and 
to  put  Him  to  grief.  Out  of  this  deep  humiliation  shall  spring 
an  immortal  power  that  shall  make  the  nations  of  the  earth  look 
up  to  Him  in  awe. 

"And  this  terrible  burden  He  bears  alone !  We  see  Him  coming 
up  out  of  the  deep  valley  of  conflict  with  garments  dyed  with 
blood,  not  with  an  army,  but  alone !  It  is  not  the  burst  of  single- 
handed  victory,  but  the  cry  of  a  great  and  noble  sorrow." 

He  then  pictures  Him  as  the  Innocent  one.  "The 
greatest  sufferer  is  not  the  man  who  commits  sin,  but 
some  innocent  and  blameless  one  that  is  tied  to  him 
by  bonds  of  relationship  and  affection."  "Sin  is  never 
so  dreadful  as  when  we  see  the  Saviour  with  that  blood 
upon  His  garments.  His  love  is  never  so  dear  as  when 
we  see  what  it  has  cost  Him  to  save  us."  "It  is  the 
Cross  of  Jesus  that  is  the  cure  for  the  mystery  of 
sorrow." 

After  the  morning  service,  he  was  brought  home  in  a 
state  of  collapse.  This  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
end.  Bad  nights  and  days  of  agony  and  pain  compelled 
him  to  suspend  all  work.  But  no  sooner  did  he  feel  a  little 
better  than  he  essayed  to  pick  up  a  few  threads  of  his 
many-sided  literary  tasks  by  an  inner  necessity  regardless 


CLOSING  OF  A   STRENUOUS   LIFE  223 

of  consequences.  Efforts  to  dictate  letters  were  followed 
by  collapse. 

A  letter,  dated  March  10,  1920,  from  Dr.  Sailer, 
of  Philadelphia,  a  friend  and  consulting  physician,  after 
ministering  to  him  in  his  last  illness,  admonishes  him 
to  lay  aside  all  work  and  worry  and  take  an  absolute 
rest.     It  reads  in  part  as  follows : 

"I  wish  I  could  tell  you  some  way  of  getting  well  that  would 
not  interfere  with  your  work.  You  will  probably  remember 
that  Tasso  dismissed  his  physician  because  he  wanted  him  to 
live  a  more  temperate  life.  I  am  risking  the  same  advice  to  you. 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  you  have  always  been  extremely  in- 
temperate in  work  and  if  there  is  any  form  of  excess  in  work 
that  you  could  practice,  you  have  always  practiced  it.  For  a 
while  you  must  rest  body  and  mind — the  body  in  bed  and  the 
mind  by  refusing  to  consider  any  problems,  and  this  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  keeping  problems  away  from  you.  Rest  first, 
then  some  remedies  to  reinforce  the  rest." 

But  it  proved  to  be  too  late  to  be  of  service. 

A  change  for  the  worse  set  in  on  March  14th, 
when  he  suffered  excruciating  pain;  but  while  he  was 
growing  weaker  steadily,  his  mind  was  clear  and  his 
voice  strong  for  the  next  two  days.  Knowing  that  the 
end  was  drawing  near,  he  spoke  his  parting  words  to 
his  sister  and  friends  with  calmness,  serenity  and  un- 
faiHng  faith,  and  passed  into  life  at  10.45  on  the  morn- 
ing of  March  23d,  without  a  struggle.  Thus  was  brought 
to  a  close  the  final  chapter  of  a  wonderfully  resourceful, 
fertile,  fruitful  and  many-sided  life. 

The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  within  and  beyond 
the  bounds  of  the  Church  he  served,  and  the  conscious- 
ness that  a  great  leader  had  fallen,  were  evidenced 
by  an  unusually  large  gathering  of  representative  leaders 
and  pastors  from  far  and  near  at  his  funeral  on  March 


224  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

29th,  when  his  body  was  consigned  to  its  resting  place 
in  Mt.  Lebanon  Cemetery. 

Dr.  Jacobs,  Sr.,  preached  the  leading  sermon  on  that 
occasion,  being  followed  by  Prof.  Dr.  Benze,  who  ad- 
dressed himself  to  the  older  members  of  Salem  in  Ger- 
man. 

DR.    JACOBS'    FUNERAL    SERMON 

John  2:17. — "And  his  disciples  remembered  that  it  ims  written, 
The  zeal  of  thine  house  Jiath  eaten  me  up." 

As  it  is  God's  gracious  will  that  believers  should  be  conformed 
to  the  image  of  His  Son,  it  would  be  strange  if  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist  (Ps.  69:9),  which  the  disciples  recognized  as  peculiarly 
applicable  to  the  earthly  life  of  their  Master,  could  not  be  applied 
— albeit  in  a  lower  degree — to  certain  of  his  followers.  The 
flame  enkindled  by  God's  Spirit  cannot  be  confined;  it  must  find 
an  outlet.  It  goes  forth  by  all  the  avenues  through  which  the 
heart  has  contact  with  the  outer  world.  All  the  energies  of  life 
are  consumed  in  concentration  upon  one  thing ;  viz.,  the  service 
of  God  in  the  upbuilding  of  his  kingdom.  So  joyful  this  labor, 
so  absorbing  the  interest  it  cultivates,  so  ever  e.xpanding  the 
opportunities  offered,  that  life  and  health  and  strength  are  counted 
nothing,  provided  one  can  only  discharge  to  the  fullest  degree  the 
ministry  which  he  has  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus   (Acts  20:24). 

The  multitude  that  has  come  hither  today  from  near  and  from 
far,  many  utter  strangers  to  one  another,  to  unite  with  this  con- 
gregation in  grief  for  the  loss  of  their  beloved  pastor,  and  with 
this  community  in  esteem  for  one  of  its  leading  citizens ;  the 
many  thousands  all  over  the  land  whose  hearts  are  at  this  hour 
turned  toward  this  spot  in  fellowship  of  sorrow,  and  in  recognition 
of  the  bond  existing  between  us  all,  through  our  common  love 
and  admiration  for  this  rarely  gifted  child  of  God,  knowing 
him  from  so  many  different  standpoints,  must  testify  that  what 
gave  unity  to  a  life  adorned  by  so  many  diversified  gifts  and 
graces,  was  his  zeal  for  the  Saviour  whom  he  preached  and  the 
faith  which  he  professed. 

What  an  almost  unprecedented  record  for  a  child  to  grow  up 
to  manhood  in  a  congregation,  and  then  returning  to  it,  to  serve 


CLOSING  OF  A    STRENUOUS   LIFE  225 

it  as  its  pastor  for  over  a  generation!  How  closely  intertwined 
was  his  life  with  that  of  his  people!  It  was  a  union  which  only 
death  could  sever.  Living  and  moving  among  you,  from  day  to 
day,  year  to  year,  he  was  verily  "a  living  epistle,  known  and  read 
of  all  men"  (2  Cor.  3:2),  a  tower  of  strength,  an  energetic,  ever 
alert  and  active  force  for  truth  and  righteousness  in  Church  and 
in  State,  a  witness  who  always  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions, 
a  careful  and  discriminating  student  and  judge  of  men  and  tenden- 
cies at  home  and  abroad.  With  the  very  tones  of  his  earnest 
voice  ineffaceably  impressed  on  the  heart,  the  Word  which  he 
preached,  many  of  the  very  phrases  which  he  used,  will,  through- 
out all  their  remaining  years,  continue  to  sound  in  the  memory 
of  many  here  present. 

His  people  he  knew  not  simply  collectively,  but  personally.  No 
widening  of  his  horizon,  no  multiplicity  of  engagements,  no  ab- 
sorption in  his  studies,  no  endeavor  to  keep  abreast  of  everything 
transpiring,  prevented  him  from  being  the  gentle,  tender,  sympa- 
thizing friend  of  every  individual,  however  humble  his  station, 
committed  to  his  care.  No  familiarity  with  scenes  of  sorrow, 
where  he  was  called  upon  to  minister  the  consolations  of  the 
Gospel,  ever  deadened  his  sensibilities  to  the  pain  that  was 
wringing  other  hearts.  "Who  is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak?  who 
is  oflfended,  and  I  burn  not?"  he  could  say  as  well  as  Paul.  Some 
of  us  at  the  seminary  will  remember  how  deeply  depressed  he 
was  at  times,  because  of  the  suffering  of  this  congregation  dur- 
ing the  agonies  and  suspense  of  the  late  war,  where  so  many 
of  your  young  men  were  at  the  front,  and  under  the  scourge  of 
the  fatal  epidemic  that  desolated  so  many  homes.  The  cheerful- 
ness and  vivacity  with  which  he  rose  above  his  griefs,  came  from 
no  superficial  view  of  the  significance  of  suffering  in  a  world  of 
sin,  but  from  his  firm  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel 
message  which  he  preached. 

The  very  fact  that  he  was  not  unacquainted  with  the  various 
forms  of  sceptical  assaults,  but  was  a  patient  reader— though  it 
often  caused  him  great  pain — of  all  that  might  affect  the  spiritual 
life  of  those  near  and  dear  to  him  enabled  him  with  the  greater 
force  to  testify  to  the  preciousness  of  the  Christian  faith.  While 
if  need  arose,  he  could  argue  with  the  skill  and  training  of  a 
P 


226  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

specialist  in  philosophy,   his  highest  ambition,   as  a   teacher,   was 
to  make  God's  Word  plain  to  little  children. 

From  this  city,  in  which  five-sixths  of  his  life  was  spent,  no 
calls,  however  urgent,  could  withdraw  him.  The  ordinary  per- 
manency of  the  office  of  a  pastor  was  a  doctrine  that  had  for 
him  much  attraction.  Nevertheless  his  sympathies  and  interest 
could  not  be  limited  by  the  boundaries  of  city,  or  county,  or 
commonwealth,  or  nation.  They  were  world-wide.  For  in  this 
parish,  so  long  his  spiritual  home,  he  saw  not  simply  a  group 
of  Christian  people,  detached  from  all  others,  but  realized  that 
at  this  spot,  the  One,  Holy  Church,  throughout  all  the  world, 
with  all  the  testimony  and  resources  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  pres- 
ent, imparting  all  the  gifts  and  graces,  common  to  believers  of 
every  age  and  land.  His  zeal  was  enkindled  in  the  parsonage, 
where,  under  an  earnest  and  devout  father,  responsive  to  the 
calls  of  the  awakening  activities  of  the  Church,  the  child  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  home,  in  which  he  was  reared,  and  of  the  influ- 
ences entering  and  sent  forth  from  that  center.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise  than  that  going  into  the  world,  with  principles  already 
firmly  established,  his  zeal  became  contagious,  and  that  in  every 
circle  into  which  he  came,  the  responsibility  of  leadership  was 
thrown  upon  him.  Burden  after  burden  was  assumed,  sometimes 
as  a  trust,  which  he  felt  himself  divinely  summoned  to  bear,  and 
sometimes  it  was  eagerly  seized  because  of  the  far-reaching 
results  which  his  foresight  discerned  as  possible.  His  sole  aim 
was  to  crowd  within  his  life,  which  he  thought  might  be  brief, 
all  that  could  be  done  for  the  cause  to  which  it  had  been  conse- 
crated. What  though  he  could  not  complete  a  task?  He  could 
begin  it;  and  if  it  were  of  God,  others  would  rise  up  to  com- 
plete it.  He  had  a  constructive  imagination,  based  upon  a  care- 
ful survey  of  available  details,  which,  while  faithful  to  the  past, 
had  no  hesitancy,  when  the  time  came,  to  break  away  from  beaten 
paths.  The  problem  ever  before  him,  was  the  readjustment  of 
the  old  faith  to  new  relations  and  conditions  in  a  new  world  and 
a  new  age.  The  idealism  of  his  philosophy  and  the  realism  of 
his  historical  temper  were  unified  by  the  central  principle  of  un- 
wavering faith  in  Christ,  both  as  revealed  in  the  Gospels,  and 
as  living  and  reigning  in  all  human  progress.  His  devotion  to 
the  Lutheran  Church  never  quenched  his  sympathy  for  what  was 


CLOSING   OF   A    STRENUOUS    LIFE  227 

universally  Christian;  nor  did  his  consecration  to  the  ministry 
make  him  the  less  a  faithful  citizen  and  an  ardent  patriot. 

Thus  through  his  participation  in  deliberative  assemblies, 
through  his  voluminous  correspondence,  and  through  the  produc- 
tions of  his  prolific  pen  in  books  and  articles,  in  elaborate  reports 
and  editorials,  as  well  as  in  educational  projects  of  many  forms, 
this  congregation,  through  its  pastor,  has  been  setting  forth  ever 
multiplying  and  widening  streams  of  blessing.  Nothing  grows 
like  the  work  of  a  thoroughly  earnest  man.  The  tree  planted  by 
rivers  of  waters,  ever  sends  out  new  boughs,  each  bough  new 
shoots,  each  shoot  new  buds  and  blossoms  and  fruit. 

At  this  hour,  we  cannot  recount  the  various  offices  which  he 
held,  or  estimate  the  value  of  the  services  which  were  rendered 
in  each.  They  will  be  subjects  of  study  for  years  to  come  as 
they  pass  into  history.  But  were  grateful  recognition  not  given 
here,  of  the  statesmanlike  grasp  of  his  fifteen  years'  administra- 
tion of  the  General  Council,  or  of  his  relations  to  the  seminary, 
our  silence  would  be  misunderstood.  Concerning  the  latter  which 
occupied  so  large  a  share  of  his  attention,  and  in  which  we  were 
most  closely  associated,  we  would  say,  that,  from  his  under- 
graduate days,  when,  under  the  stimulation  of  an  exceptional  inti- 
macy enjoyed  above  all  other  students,  with  his  great  teachers, 
Drs.  Krauth  and  Mann,  he  already  prepared  an  elaborate  scheme 
for  the  development  of  the  Library,  and  edited  "The  Indicator," 
which  aroused  the  Church  to  the  need  of  a  new  site  for  the 
institution,  down  to  his  last  illness,  when  it  was  a  comfort  to 
him  to  have  one  of  his  students  ministering  at  his  side,  he  never 
wavered  in  loyalty  to  his  Alma  Mater.  As  President  of  the  Board, 
he  was  ever  discussing  with  the  Faculty,  and  planning  new  pro- 
grams. Filling  the  place,  but  declining  both  the  title  and  the 
compensation  of  a  Professor,  and  rendered  almost  homeless  by 
his  weekly  journeys  during  term  time,  his  preparations  for  the 
class-room  constantly  involved  new  labor,  while  his  various  en- 
gagements were  often  protracted  until  late  in  the  night.  He 
lived  among  the  students,  tried  in  all  things  to  gain  their  view- 
point, championed  their  cause,  and  cultivated  their  personal  friend- 
ship, as  though  he  were  an  elder  brother. 

So  heavy  has  been  the  blow,  succeeding  within  barely  a  month 
the  departure  of  the  most  venerable  member  of  our  Faculty,  that. 


228  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

as  teacher  after  teacher  has  stepped  almost  from  the  lecture-room 
into  the  eternal  world,  we  are  bewildered. 

But  whatever  be  the  relations  we  have  borne  to  the  departed — 
and  there  are  here  representatives  of  many  interests  that  are 
alike  almost  prostrated  for  the  time — we  have  only  to  raise  the 
standard  that  has  fallen  from  his  hands  and  to  go  onward.  While 
the  battle  rages,  we  cannot  nurse  our  grief.  We  live  in  com- 
munion with  him  by  taking  up  his  work,  and  prosecuting  it  with 
the  consuming  zeal  which  he  displayed. 

We  are  cast  down;  but  not  in  despair;  or  we  would  be  false 
to  the  Gospel,  to  which  the  life  of  our  departed  brother  was  so 
brilliant  a  testimony. 

EXPRESSIONS  OF   SORROW 

That  a  great  gap  in  the  leadership  of  the  Church  had 
been  made  was  expressed  in  many  telegrams  and  letters 
that  came  to  Lebanon  upon  the  announcement  of  Dr. 
Schmauk's  death.  Dr.  Knubel  expressed  the  wide- 
spread feeling  when  he  wired :  "The  sorrow  and  sym- 
pathy of  the  Church  gather  around  Lebanon."  Presi- 
dents of  synods  and  leaders  in  the  United  Church  with 
one  voice  poured  out  heartfelt  expressions  of  their  pro- 
found sense  of  loss.  "A  mighty  leader  has  fallen" — 
"The  whole  Church  mourns" — "His  loss  to  the  Church 
at  large  and  to  the  Lutheran  Church  in  particular  is  irre- 
parable"— "He  was  in  a  class  by  himself ;  no  one  can 
take  his  place," — such  are  among  the  many  mournful 
statements  that  found  their  way  to  Lebanon. 

Nor  was  the  sorrow  confined  to  The  United  Lutheran 
Church.  From  the  President  of  the  Augustana  Synod 
(Dr.  Brandelle)  the  following  telegram  was  received: 

"The  Augustana  Synod  weeps  at  the  bier  of  Doctor  Schmauk. 
In  his  death,  it  has  lost  one  of  its  truest  and  most  beloved  friends, 
and  the  Church  of  our  land  one  of  its  greatest,  most  ardent  and 
most  trusted  leaders." 


EXPRESSIONS  OF  SORROW  229 

A  similar  message  came  from  the  President  of  the 
United  Norwegian  Church  (Dr.  Stub).  It  reads  as 
follows : 

"The  message  telling  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  death  came  unexpectedly. 
I  hereby  express  my  deep  sympathy.  The  United  Lutheran 
Church  has  sustained  a  great  loss,  as  Dr.  Schmauk  was  one  of 
the  ablest  men — a  real  leader  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  His  mem- 
ory will  live." 

ESTIMATES    OF    DR.    SCHMAUK 

Among  the  many  estimates  of  Dr.  Schmauk's  life 
and  character  and  work,  we  must  be  content  with  three, 
which  in  substance  express  what  multitudes  who  knew 
him  feel. 

One  is  from  Dr.  Knubel,  who  wrote  for  The  Lutheran 
as  follows : 

"There  is  no  man  in  our  Church  whose  Christian  consecration 
has  been  more  evident,  whose  deep  loyalty  to  the  Church  has  been 
stronger,  whose  full  participation  in  her  thought  and  activity 
has  been  wider,  whose  counsel  has  been  more  constantly  sought 
and  given,  whose  influence  has  been  more  powerful  and  helpful 
than  that  of  Dr.  Schmauk.  He  is  dead.  How  shall  our  hearts 
be  saved  from  increasing  heaviness?  These  days  tell  us  that 
Christ's  supreme  blessing  came  to  us  through  His  death.  May  it 
be  of  all  His  disciples  that  they  bless  others  more  by  what  they 
suffer  than  by  what  they  do.  May  it  be  that  our  Church  will 
now  receive  even  richer  good  from  Dr.  Schmauk  than  ever  be- 
fore. One  thing  is  sure,  those  of  us  closest  to  him  in  the  last 
few  years  have  received  the  fullest,  ripest,  greatest  gifts  he  has 
ever  given.  His  service  to  His  Church  goes  on.  We  continue 
to  thank  our  Lord  for  him." 

Another  is  from  Dr.  John  Haas,  president  of 
Muhlenberg  College,  a  life-long  friend  and  co-worker. 
He  says: 

"His  life  was  to  me  a  constant  source  of  new  inspiration  to 
larger   efforts   in   scholarship  and   in  the  practical   work  of   the 


230  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Church.  In  him  I  found  the  counter-balance  to  my  desire  to  go 
further  than  is  meet  in  the  appreciation  of  what  is  true  in  modern 
thought  and  its  development.  The  conservatism  of  Dr.  Schmauk 
was  a  mighty  force  for  good,  and  it  was  not  a  stagnant  but  a 
progressive  development.  His  mind  was  not  only  analytical  but 
also  strongly  synthetic.  He  possessed  great  constructive 
imagination.  With  a  marvelous  mastery  of  a  multitude  of  de- 
tails, he  never  failed  to  marshall  them  for  the  demonstration  of 
a  great  principle.  A  rich  vocabulary  enabled  him  to  express  his 
thought  with  striking  exuberance  and  force.  He  joined  the  poet's 
appreciation  with  the  orator's  power.  He  could  write  with  sim- 
plicity for  the  child  and  with  philosophic  insight  for  the  thinker. 
The  whole  range  of  thought  and  expression  was  at  his  com- 
mand.    All  these  gifts  he  laid  on  the  altar  of  his  Lord. 

"In  his  personal  life  he  was  tender,  gentle,  kind,  considerate, 
and  hungry  for  sincere  friendship.  He  might  fight  like  a  lion  for 
a  great  cause  or  a  great  principle,  and  yet  personally  he  was 
always  just  to  his  opponents.  There  was  no  bitterness  in  his 
most  vehement  polemics.  The  sources  of  his  spiritual  life  lay 
deep  in  his  soul.  Everything  in  him  welled  like  a  fountain  out 
of  the  depths  of  his  life.  Even  when  he  was  playful,  it  was  simply 
to  prepare  for  the  opening  up  of  the  hidden  springs  of  his  soul. 
His  faith  was  sturdy,  his  love  self-sacificing,  and  his  hope  bright 
and  sweet  and  strong. 

"He  was  a  born  leader,  and  his  leadership  bore  no  marks  of 
personal  self-gratification  or  self-aggrandizement.  It  simply  fur- 
nished him  the  occasion  for  larger  and  more  arduous  work. 
What  he  did,  he  did  with  all  his  might.  We  shall  miss  him 
in  the  future  as  a  leader  in  Sunday-school  work  where  he  ranked 
as  the  pioneer  in  applying  sound  educational  principles  to  religious 
teaching  without  destroying  its  substance.  He  thought  construc- 
tively in  his  defense  of  the  Christian  faith,  realizing  the  ne- 
cessity of  upholding  the  Church's  Confession  of  the  Truth.  His 
theology  was  never  cramped  by  terminology.  There  was  life  in 
all  that  he  expressed.  He  stood  out  as  a  leader  in  all  the  de- 
liberations, activities  and  interests  of  the  Church.  He  knew 
how  to  fuse  the  diverse  elements  within  the  General  Council.  It 
was  his  influence  which  kept  the  Swedish  brethren  with  us. 
His  mind  was  the  dominating  force  in  the  creation  of  The  United 
Lutheran  Church.     Much  of  the  best  thought  of  its  Constitution 


ESTIMATES    OF    DR.     SCHMAUK  231 

and  its  plans  are  his  work.  He  was  the  greatest  man  on  the 
floor  of  its  first  convention.  No  one  else  measured  up  to  him. 
We  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  the  Lord  took  him  at  this 
time  when  we  needed  him  to  help  give  strong  and  consistent 
character  to  the  life  of  The  United  Lutheran  Church.  One  thing 
is  sure,  his  absence  from  us  will  turn  the  channels  of  the  history 
of  Lutheranism  in  a  different  direction.  We  only  hope  that  it 
may  be  a  direction  that  augurs  good.  He  stood  among  the  few 
great  names  in  the  history  of  our  Church.  Since  the  days  of 
Muhlenberg,  no  one's  influence  was  so  universal  and  touched  so 
many  interests  as  that  of  Dr.  Schmauk.  He  was  not  only  a 
scholar  like  Dr.  Krauth,  he  was  not  only  a  preacher  like  Dr. 
Spaeth,  he  was  not  only  a  teacher  like  Dr.  Mann ;  but  in  addition 
he  shaped  the  life  of  a  generation  in  the  Sunday-schools,  and 
made  definite  the  policy  of  the  leading  boards  of  the  Church. 
Truly  his  was  the  work  of  a  great,  brilliant,  devoted,  zealous 
servant  of  his  Church  and  his  Master." 

Another  is  from  the  Parish  and  Church  School  Board 
of  The  United  Lutheran  Church,  where  his  wisdom  and 
counsel  will  be  greatly  missed.  A  minute  on  his  death 
reads  as  follows : 

"In  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Theodore  E.  Schmauk,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
first  president  of  the  Sunday  School  Board  of  The  United  Luth- 
eran Church,  a  loss  has  been  sustained  which  it  is  not  in  the 
power  of  words  to  express.  For  twenty-five  years  he  had  grap- 
pled with  marvellous  industry  and  resourcefulness  with  the 
problem  of  Bible  instruction  for  the  young  in  the  Sunday-schools 
of  the  General  Council,  and  had  become  the  advocate  and  inspir- 
ation of  a  system  of  Graded  instruction  which,  though  far  from 
being  in  its  final  revised  form  as  contemplated  and  planned  by 
him,  was  yet  recognized  at  Washington  as  the  pioneer  in  this 
field,  and  without  a  rival.  It  is  with  profound  regret,  a  regret 
keenly  felt  in  schools  where  the  system  had  won  fast  friends 
and  was  in  successful  use,  that  we  as  a  Board  must  face  this  un- 
finished work  without  the  able  leadership  of  this  prince  of  Bible 
teachers.  He  had  grasped  the  pedagogical  principles,  which  must 
form  the  basis  of  any  sound  Scriptural  system  of  graded  instruc- 
tion, with  a  master  mind.     His  intimate  knowledge  of  the  child 


2Z2  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

mind  and  the  child  nature;  his  wonderful  adaptability  which  en- 
abled him  to  stoop  to  its  level  and  meet  its  needs;  his  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  whole  range  of  literature  that  had  any 
bearing,  however  remote,  on  the  subject  of  religious  instruction 
of  the  yovmg;  his  intense  devotion  and  enthusiasm;  and  above  all 
his  unshaken  faith  in  the  Revelation  of  which  the  Scriptures  are  the 
unerring  record;  made  him  a  leader  par  excellence  in  this  field 
of  Christian  educational  endeavor.  We  bow  in  deep  humility  be- 
fore that  inscrutable  divine  Providence  which  saw  fit  to  take  him 
away  in  the  midst  of  his  unfinished  work,  and  pray  for  wisdom 
and  guidance  as  we  attempt  to  take  up  the  task  where  he  has  laid 
it  down.  A  master  workman  has  passed  from  our  midst,  but 
the  work  entrusted  to  our  Board  must  and  will  go  on." 


POSITIONS    HELD    IN    THE   CHURCH  233 


Positions  Held  in  the  Church 

1.  Literary  Editor  of  The  Lutheran  (1889  to  1920) 

2.  Editor  of  Lutheran  Church  Review (1895  to  1920) 

3.  Editor  of  Lutheran  Graded  Series  and  Com- 

mentary      (1896  to  1920) 

4.  Member    of    General    Council    Church    Book 

Committee  and  of  Joint  Committee  of  Com- 
mon Service  Book  and  Hymnal ( 1895  to  1920) 

5.  Trustee  of   Muhlenberg  College (1898  to  1920) 

6.  President  of  the  General  Council (1903  to  1920) 

7.  Chairman  of  Committee  on  Degrees,  Muhlen- 

berg   College    (1903  to  1920) 

8.  Member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 

International    Lutheran   Conference (1903  to  1920) 

9.  President  of  Trustees  of  General  Council. ...  (1907  to  1920) 

10.  President    of    Board    of    Directors    of    Phila. 

Theological    Seminary    (1908  to  1920) 

11.  Occupant     of     Chair     of     Christian     Faith, 

Apologetics   and   Ethics,    Etc (1911  to  1920) 

12.  Chairman     Committee     of     Quadri-centennial 

Celebration  of  Reformation (1917  to  1918) 

13.  Chairman   Ways   and    Means    Committee    for 

Organization  of  Unilted   Lutheran  Church. .  (1917  to  1918) 

14.  Chairman   of   Committee  on   Constitution   for 

United    Lutheran    Church (1917  to  1918) 

15.  Member    of    Executive    Board,  of   Board  of 

Publication,  and  President  of  Sunday  School 

Board  of   United   Lutheran   Church (1918  to  1920) 

16.  Member  of   Committee  on   Relation  of   Con- 

stituent Synods  of  U.  L.  C (1918  to  1920) 

17.  Member  of   National   Lutheran   Council    (for 

whose  organization  he  issued  the  call) (1918  to  1920) 


234  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 


Positions  Outside  the  Church 

1.  One    of     Organizers     of     Pennsylvania  Chautauqua     (1892) 

and  its  Chancellor   (1895-96). 

2.  One    of    Organizers    of    the    Pennsylvania    German    Society 

(1891)   and  Chairman  of  its  Executive  Committee   (1895), 
and  its  President  (1896). 

3.  One   of    Organizers    of    Lebanon    County   Historical    Society 

(1898)   and  Member  of  its  Executive  Committee   (1898). 

4.  Life   Member  of   Pennsylvania  Historical   Society    (1898). 

Author  of  Following  Books 

Dr.  Schmauk  was  the  author  of  the  following :  "The  Negative 
Criticism  of  the  Old  Testament"  (1894)  ;  "Catechetical  Outlines" 
(1892);  "The  Voice  in  Speech  and  Song"  (1891);  "The  Charms 
and  Secrets  of  Good  Conversation"  (1889);  "History  of  Old 
Salem  in  Lebanon"  (1898)  ;  "Heartbroken"  (1893)  ;  "Hypnotism" 
(1890);  "Bible  History"  (1899);  "Manual  of  Bible  Geography" 
(1901);  "The  Early  Churches  of  the  Lebanon  Valley"  (1902); 
"History  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  Pennsylvania  from  the 
Original  Sources"  (1903);  "Bible  Facts  and  Scenes"  (1905); 
"The  Christian  Kindergarten"  (1906)  ;  "The  Confessional  Prin- 
ciple and  the  Confessions  of  the  Lutheran  Church"  (1909)  ; 
"Annotated  Edition  of  Benjamin  Rush's  Account  of  the  German 
Inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania"  (1910)  ;  "In  Mother's  Arms" 
(1911);  "How  to  Teach  in  Sunday  School"  (1920);  "Annotated 
Bibliography  of  Religious  Education  and.  Child  Psychology" 
(1920). 


DR.  SCHMAUK 

ON  LIVE  QUESTIONS  AND 

ISSUES 


DR.  SCHMAUK  ON  LIVE  QUESTIONS 
AND  ISSUES 

No  biography  of  Dr.  Schmauk  can  he  satisfactory  if  not  supple- 
mented with  extracts  from  his  letters  and  other  writings  bearing 
on  living  questions  and  issues  ivhich  absorbed  much  of  his  best 
thought  and  energy.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  supplementary 
matter  to  let  him  speak  for  himself. 

ON  THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST 

(In  the  last  hour  with  his  class  in  1919  he  intended  to  summarize  the 
course  he  had  given  in  apologetics  but  was  interrupted  by  a  question 
which  asked  the  difference  between  Jesus  and  the  great  Eastern  eachers. 
Immediately  seeing  his  opportunity  he  combined  his  object  of  summar  z- 
ing  the  course  with  the  answer  to  the  question,  and  without  a  momerit  s 
thought,  without  the  use  of  any  kind  of  notes,  he  .  delivered  a  lecture 
which  will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  class.  The  following  is  a  stenographic 
report  of  the  lecture,  as  presented  by  one  of  his  students.) 

Many  wise  men,  Socrates,  Confucius,  Plato,  Buddha,  have 
said  some  of  the  things  that  Jesus  said,  but  none  was  what  He 
was.     None  said  the  things  in  actions  as  He  did. 

What  Jesus  says  is  final  and  absolute.  He  never  speaks  specu- 
latively, never  merely  as  a  moralist,  never  merely  as  a  human 
reformer.  He  always  speaks  categorically,  declaring  either  truth 
or  fact,  and  as  rooted  in  the  absolute.  What  He  says  is  so 
final  that  it  finds  response  in  our  hearts,  and  in  our  hearts  we 
know  it  to  be  true.  No  prophet  ever  lived  who  spoke  with  such 
certitude  of  Himself  as  at  once  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of 
Man.  In  all  the  fullness  of  a  world  vision,  with  all  the  anticipa- 
tion of  a  future,  with  the  real  knowledge  of  a  historic  past.  He 
stands  up  without,  as  we  say,  an  education,  and  He  begins  to  speak 
the  truths  that  are  as  mighty  and  true  today  as  in  the  past.  He 
lays  down  the  laws  that  are  the  same  yesterday,  today,  and  forever. 

No  one  ever  did  as  this  man,  no  one  ever  spake  as  this  man,  no 
one  in  this  world  could  have  begun  to  utter  what  He  uttered 
Other  teachers  are  at  best  conscious  that  they  point  to  a  realm 
of  truth ;  alone  among  leaders  of  the  soul  Jesus  absorbs  the  highest 
principles  into  His  own  personality.  To  the  seeker  after  light 
He  says,  "Follow  me;"  to  one  who  would  know  the  Father  He 
says,   "Hast  thou  not  known  me?"     He   says   He   is  the   Truth. 


238  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

The  vision  of  God  is  in  Him.  He  cannot  merely  point  to  rest 
and  pardon,  but  they  are  in  Him.  Moses  and  the  prophets  did 
not  dare  to  speak  so,  nor  Buddha,  nor  Plato,  nor  G>nfucius,  nor 
Socrates,  nor  any  other  teacher  in  the  world. 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  source  of  spiritual  reality.  The  spirituality 
of  God,  the  spirituality  of  the  First  Cause  of  all  things,  the 
spirituality  of  the  Ultimate  Principle,  of  man,  of  life,  of  all 
worship,  of  the  Kingdom  that  will  prevail  over  all  the  world, 
of  man's  heart,  of  the  reign  of  righteousness,  of  conduct,  has  all 
been  introduced  into  the  foundation  of  the  world,  into  the  history 
of  mankind,  in  and  through  Jesus  Christ. 

Spirituality  is  the  emphasis  of  the  truth  of  God  as  the  great 
and  conquering  reality  of  life.  Our  Saviour  in  His  personality 
is  the  one  sublime  exposition  of  the  conquering  of  the  spiritual 
in  the  midst  of  the  visible.  He  was  equally  at  home  in  the  bosom 
of  nature  and  of  God.  He  is  the  Light  of  the  world.  He  is  the 
Life  of  men.  "In  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily."  He  possesseth  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,  so  that 
Christ  is  ever  standing  at  the  center  of  things,  drawing  all  men 
unto  Him.  By  Him  were  all  things  created,  visible  and  invisible. 
He  is  before  all  in  us,  and  in  Him  stand  all  things  together.  All 
things  come  together  in  Him,  have  order  in  Him.  In  Him  and 
around  Him  all  things  converge. 

.  Jesus  Christ  is  far  more  to  us  than  the  source  of  spiritual 
reality.  He  is  the  revealer  of  God.  He  is  God  made  manifest 
in  the  flesh.  He  lives  as  the  embodiment  of  God.  The  Son  reveals 
the  Father.  The  one  is  the  manifestation  of  the  other.  Through 
the  Son  the  Father  reveals  Himself  to  the  world,  and  thus  God 
comes  as  the  Father.  So  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  now  with 
men.     We  dwell  in  Him,  and  He  dwells  in  us. 

Any  explanation  of  Christ  which  stops  short  of  presenting  Him 
as  God  loses  power.  The  secret  is  that  He  brings  God  to  man 
and  then  man  to  God.  God  is  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to 
Himself.  Christ  shows  God  to  us  as  a  power  which  releases 
from  evil.  The  light  and  glory  of  the  Lord  comes  through  Him 
— "I  in  thee,  and  thou  in  me."  Therefore  it  is  life  eternal  to 
know  the  only  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  He  has  sent, 
and  it  is  through  Him  alone  that  we  are  saved,  for,  "No  man," 
says  He,  "cometh  to  the  Father  save  by  me." 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  239 

The  more  I  study  Him,  the  more  sure  I  am  of  Him.  I  know 
whom  I  have  believed  because  I  know  what  He  is.  The  world 
has  had  wonderful  seers  whose  visions  have  shone  like  a  beacon 
across  the  ocean  of  time.  Scientists  have  made  important  dis- 
coveries which  have  advanced  the  world's  progress ;  historians 
have  compiled  data  and  imparted  information  of  the  greatest 
value;  Homer,  Virgil  and  Milton  have  charmed  our  senses  by 
their  poems ;  the  philosophers  have  stirred  us  by  the  profoundness 
of  their  thoughts ;  but  none  of  these,  nor  all  of  them  together, 
would  be  a  compensation  for  the  single  life  of  Christ,  for  there 
is  only  One  who  will  take  us  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  Lord, 
and  straight  to  the  Source  of  Life.  There  is  only  One  who  will 
remove  from  us  all  sin  and  depravity  and  crime,  who  will  free  us 
from  pain  and  fear,  who  can  lift  us  with  His  tender  hand  and 
cheery  word,  pure  and  joyous,  out  from  the  depths  into  which 
we  have  fallen.  There  is  only  "One  who  hath  redeemed  me, 
a  lost  and  condemned  creature,  from  sin,  death,  and  the  power 
of  the  devil  with  His  holy  and  precious  blood  in  order  that  I 
might  be  His."  There  is  Only  one  who  can  say,  "He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

Our  poets  paint  the  myriad-hued  bubbles  of  time ;  our  Saviour 
controls  and  verges  the  tides  of  eternity.  Even  a  Shakespeare 
stands  in  this  world,  but  to  Christ  this  world  is  but  a  small  seg- 
ment in  the  circle.  Christ  is  not  of  this  world.  Christ  takes  a 
man  right  to  God.  The  great  questions  of  faith  and  of  life 
and  death,  the  great  problems  of  righteousness  and  sin,  the  great- 
est hopes,  the  greatest  fears,  the  greatest  joys,  the  greatest  judg- 
ments, the  greatest  rewards,  are  those  which  Emerson  and  Spen- 
cer leave  untouched,  and  which  jMilton  and  Dante  clumsily  im- 
agine, but  which  Christ  takes  up  as  part  of  Himself  in  simple 
and  substantial  certainty.  Other  great  men  offer  us  their  thoughts, 
but  Christ  offers  us  Himself,  Himself  on  the  cross.  Himself  on 
the  Right  Hand  of  the  Father  as  our  Advocate  and  Defender. 
Chaucer's  men  and  women  are  more  to  us  than  Chaucer ;  Dante's 
dreams  are  greater  than  Dante ;  Milton's  words  are  mightier 
than  Milton;  but  Christ's  words  are  only  a  commentary  on  Christ. 
It  is  not  the  word,  nor  the  intellect,  nor  the  imagination,  but  the 
person  that  draws  us  unto  Christ.  To  see  Him,  to  come  to  Him, 
to  be  drawn  to  Him,  to  abide  in  Him,  to  follow  Him,  to  learn  of 


240  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Him,  to  find  rest  in  Him,  to  believe  in  Him,  to  be  saved  by  Him, 
is  our  desire  and  hope,  for  we  are  from  beneath  but  He  is  from 
above.  He  is  the  One  that  could  say  "He  that  loveth  father  and 
mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me." 

Let  us  hold  on  to  Christ  as  our  life.  He  Himself  is  the  sum 
total  of  our  unfolded  humanity.  He  neither  does  nor  shows,  but 
is.  The  truth  that  others  speak,  He  is.  The  life  that  others 
feel  and  dream  and  describe,  He  is.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega. 
In  the  shadow  of  His  hand  will  He  hide  thee  and  make  thee  a 
polished  arrow,  and  in  His  quiver  will  He  keep  thee  close. 


ON  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  TRINITY 

(The  follozifing  is  a  letter,  imtten  to  his  sister  Emma  zvhen 
attending  college,  to  counteract  the  rationalistic  teaching  concern- 
ing God  which  a  certain  pro-fessor  of  physics  was  disseminating.) 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  does  not  rest  on  I  John  (which 
is  a  comparatively  unimportant  writing,  and  one  whose  text 
in  this  connection  may  not  ibe  definitely  known)  ;  but  upon  the 
whole  frame-work  of  Scripture.  The  doctrine  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood  or  of  the  sphericity  of  the  earth  does  not  rest  so 
much  on  a  single  detached  fact  (as,  e.  g.,  on  the  beating  of  the 
pulse,  in  the  former  case)  as  on  a  great  and  broad  background  of 
more  indirect,  but  more  substantial  proof. 

The  doctrine  is  to  be  found  in  three  classes  of  Scripture ;  those 
which  teach  the  unity  of  God ;  those  which  teach  a  plurality  in 
God;  and  those  which  teach  that  there  is  a  real  and  not  simply  a 
formal  or  modal  distinction  indicated  by  the  plurality.  The  entire 
body  of  Scripture  is  impregnated  with  the  truth  of  the  Trinity; 
just  as  the  entire  human  body  is  impregnated  with  the  circulation 
of  the  iblood ;  though  in  the  latter  case  the  blood  nozvhere  appears 
on  the  surface.  If  such  a  great,  deep,  mysterious  truth  which  is 
the  fundamental  thing  in  the  being  of  God,  were  exposed  openly 
on  the  surface,  it  would  be  altogether  contrary  to  what  is  natural 
and  to  be  expected.  Surely  the  laws  of  God's  own  inner  hidden  being 
are  not  to  be  supposed  to  be  more  easily  opened  up  than  the 
laws  of  biology,  chemistry,  physics,  etc.  Nature  flaunts  none 
of  these  latter  on  the  surface.  And  Nature's  God  on  the  same 
principle,  would  not  be  expected  to  open  out  the  truth  concern- 
ing Himself    (who  is  greater  than  any   of    His   works)    at  first 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  241 

blush !  And  there  is  the  mistake  that  amateurs  in  theology  make, 
when  they  pass  their  remarks  in  such  a  flippant  way  on  super- 
ficial examination.  If  your  Professor  in  Physics  needs  instru- 
ments and  tests,  etc.,  ad  infinitum,  and  will  not  commit  himself 
at  all  yet  on  many  scientific  problems — what  right  has  he  to  speak 
on  theological  problems  until  he  has  given  at  least  as  much  exact 
research  to  them  as  to  his  physics. 

(This  is  said  with  no  animus,  but  merely  to  is'how  how  foolish 
it  is  for  learned  men  who  claim  to  be  experts  in  their  own  de- 
partment to  depart  from  their  own  principles  of  exactness  and 
pass  off-hand  judgments  in  other  departments.  It  is  not  only 
your  Professor,  but  many  of  us,  you  and  I  both,  who  often  are 
tempted  to  do  this.) 

The  Old  Testament  is  full  of  the  Trinity  in  a  latent  way ;  but 
as  is  the  case  with  redemption,  immortality  and  the  other  great 
doctrines,  there  is  not  much  patent  in  this  introductory  stage.  The 
Son  and  Spirit  as  well  as  the  Father  are  spoken  of  in  Psa.  2; 
Isaiah  48:16;  and  forms  of  speech  are  employed,  indicating  the 
mighty  mystery  of  Trinity  in  unity  in  Num.  6:23-26;  Isaiah  6:3. 

In  the  New  Testament  already  at  the  annunciation  of  the  birth 
of  Jesus,  it  was  stated  that  it  should  be  through  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  that  he  should  "be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest"  (Luke  1 :35). 
Here  is  the  Trinity.  When  Christ  was  baptized,  the  Spirit  of 
God,  in  a  bodily  form,  descended  upon  him,  and  there  was  a  voice 
from  heaven  saying,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am 
well  pleased."  Here  is  a  distinct  revelation  of  Father,  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost.  When  Christ  gave  His  deepest  and  final  teachings 
to  His  disciples  (preparatory  to  His  death  and  ascension)  (John's 
Gospel),  we  have  ample  statements  of  the  distinction  and  of  some 
of  the  relations  existing  between  the  persons  of  the  sacred  Trin- 
ity, (e.  g.,  John  17  and  preceding  and  following  chapters.) 
God  the  Father  has  sent  forth  God  the  Son  into  the  world.  The 
Son  had  left  the  glory  he  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was,  and  came  to  earth  to  suffer  and  die.  He  is  about  to  return 
again  to  the  Father,  having  accomplished  his  mission.  But 
another  will  be  sent,  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  will  abide  with  the 
disciples.  Coming  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  he  will  guide 
the  disciples  into  all  truth.  John  14:15-26;  15:26;  16:13,  15. 
Here  is  the  Trinity. 

0 


242  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

When  Christ  was  about  to  leave  the  world,  and  gave  over  the 
continuance  of  the  work  which  he  had  simply  begun,  to  his  dis- 
ciples, he  commissioned  them  to  go  out  into  all  the  world  and 
preach  to  and  baptize  all  people  "in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Matt.  28:19.  Here  is  the 
Trinity  in  the  most  important  and  official  commission  the  Church 
ever  received.  It  would  be  an  incomprehensible  thing,  if  it  were 
meaningless.  "In  the  name  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella"  surely 
means  much  as  to  the  relation  between  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
in  an  official  document   formally  delivered. 

The  apostolic  benediction  (2  Cor.  13:14)  is  in  the  name  of  the 
Triune  God.  Both  Baptism  and  Benediction,  the  most  important 
practical  things  in  the  new  life  of  the  Christian,  are  not  in  the 
name  of  God,  or  of  Christ,  or  of  the  Lord;  but  of  the  Trinity. 

The  whole  thought  and  speech  of  the  Apostles  teaches  the  Trin- 
ity. Thus  Paul,  "For  through  him  (Christ)  we  both  have  access 
by  one  Spirit,  unto  the  Father.  Eph.  2:18.  Again,  speaking  of 
the  great  salvation,  "which  at  the  first  began  to  be  spoken  by  the 
Lord  (Christ),  and  was  confirmed  unto  us  by  them  that  heard 
him,  God  (the  Father),  also  bearing  them  witness  both  with 
signs  and  wonders,  etc.,  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Heb.  2:3,  4.  So 
Peter  says  "Elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God  the 
Father,  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto  obedience  and 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ."  I  Peter  1  :2.  Language 
could  not  be  plainer  on  so  difficult  a  subject. 

But  Take  the  Second   Class  of  Passages 

1.     Names    or   Titles   of   Divinity   Applied   to   Each    of   the 
Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity 

A.     The  Father 

Deut.  32:6;  I  Chron.  29:10;  Isaiah  64:8;  53:16;  Mai.  1:6;  2:10;  Rom. 
is:6;  I  Cor.  8:6;  2  Cor.  11:31;  Gal.  1:3,  4;  Eph.  1:1;  Phil.  1:1;  Col.  1:2; 
I  Thess.  1:1;  2  Thess.  1:2;  2  John  3. 

B.     The  Son 

Jer.  23:6;  Isa.  41:1,  8,  10;  11:1-3;  (w.  John  12:41);  John  1:1;  20:28; 
Acts  20:28;  Rom.  9:5;  I  Tim.  3:16;  Tit.  2:13;  i  John  5:20;  Heb.  1:8; 
Rev.   19:17;   I   Cor.   15:47;  Acts  10:36;  Rev.   17:14;   19:16. 

C.     The  Holy  Ghost 

Ex.  17:7;  Ps.  95:7.  8;  (w.  Heb.  3:7-11);  2  Sam.  23:2;  Acts  5:3.  4;  2 
Cor.   3:17. 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  243 

2.    Divine  Attributes 
Ascribed  to  each  of  the  Three  Persons : 
Etsrnity 

Father — Deut.  33:27;  Ps.  90:2;  93:2;  Isa.  57:1s;  Hab.   1:12;   i  Tim.  1:17. 
The    Son—Fs.    4S:6;    Isa.    9:6;    Mk.    5:2;    John    1:1;    8:.s8;    17:5;    Col. 
1:17;   Heb.   13:8;  Rev.   1:7. 
Holy  Ghost — ^Heb.  9:14. 

Omnipresence 
Father — i    Kings  8:27;  Jer.   23:23,  24;   Eph.    1:23. 
Son — Matt.  28:20;  18:20;  John  1:18. 
Holy  Ghost — Ps.   139:7;   i   Cor.   12:10-13. 

Omnipotence 
Father — Gen.    17:1;   Jer.   32:17;   Matt.   19:26;  Rev.    11:17;    i9:6. 
Son — Heb.   1:3;    Isa.  9:6;   Matt.   28:18;   Rev.   1:8. 
Holy  Ghost — Luke  1:3s;  Rom  15:19;  Heb.  2:4. 

Omniscience 

Father — Ps.  147:5;  Isa.  11:28;  46:9;  Acts  15:18;  Heb.  4:13. 
Son — ^John   11:25;   21:17;  Rev.  2:23;  Acts   1:24. 
Holy  Ghost — i   Cor.  2:10,  11;  John  14:26;   16:13. 

Creation  Attributed  to   Each 

Father — Gen.    1:1;    Neh.   9:6;    Isa.    42:5;    Heb.   3:4;    Rev.    4*.ii. 
Son — John   1:3,   10;  Col.   1:16,   17;  Eph.  3:9;   Heb.   1:2,   10. 
Holy  Ghost — Gen.   1:2;  Job  26:13;  Ps.  33:6;    104:30. 

Preservation   and   Providence 
Father — A  long  list. 

Son—Ueh.  1:3;  Col.  1:17;  Matt.  28:18;  Isa.  9:7;  i  Thess.  3:2;  i  Cor. 
15:25;  Rev.   11:15. 

Holy  Ghost — Ps.   104:30. 

Redemption    and    Salvation 

Father — John  3:16;    i  John  4:9;   Isa.  53:16;  45:21. 

Son — Matt.  1:21;  Rom.  3:24;  Eph.  1:7;  Heb.  9:12;  Acts  4:12;  Heb. 
2:10;  John  4:42;    1  John   4:14. 

Holy  Ghost— 'Heh.  9:14;   Tit.  3:5;   2  Thess.   2:13;   Rom.   5:5;   i   Pet.   1:2. 

To  the  Father  the  Son  declared,  "Thou  lovedst  me  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world"  (John  17:24).  The  Father  "hath 
committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son."  Here  there  is  certainly 
distinction  of  persons.  Again,  against  the  Holy  Ghost  there 
is  a  blasphemy  distinguishing  it  from  other  sins  against  the 
Father  and  the  Son,  and  distinguishing  Him  from  the  other  per- 
sons of  the  Trinity.  Matt.  12:31.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  grieved, 
which  can  only  be  true  of  a  Being  possessed  of  personality. 

Kepler's  laws  are  not  as  important  to  the  average  man  as  are 
the  laws  of  earthly  temperature.  Neither  are  they  as  clearly 
revealed.  But  they  are  more  fundamental.  So  the  Trinity  is 
not  of  as  great  practical  importance  to  us  as  our  redemption, 
righteousness,  providence,  etc.     But  the  Trinity  is  back  of  and 


244  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

more  fundamental  than  all  these;  and  He  would  be  a  poor  scien- 
tist who  denies  it  simply  because  it  is  so  far  in  the  background. 


ON   THE  FREEDOM   OF  WILL 
(Another  letter  to  his  sister  Emma  to  protect  her  against  certain 
philosophical  teachings  at  college.) 

There  is  no  problem  more  difficult  and  complicated  than  that 
of  the  Freedom  of  the  Will.  There  are  many  large  treatises  on 
the  subject  both  from  the  metaphysical  and  from  the  experimental 
point  of  view.  Your  young  man  lecturer  seems  to  take  the  posi- 
tion of  Emanuel  Kant.  Kant's  fundamental  position  on  conscious- 
ness is  sound;  but  in  the  way  he  followed  it  out  in  his  Critique 
of  Pure  Reason,  he  denied  not  merely  the  freedom  of  the  will 
but  the  possibility  of  objective  knowledge  to  the  reason.  Having 
thus  by  pure  philosophic  process  made  shipwreck  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  nature  of  man  (without  the  freedom  of  the 
will  and  responsibility  there  can  be  no  moral  nature),  he  tried 
to  save  the  latter  in  his  Critique  of  the  Practical  Reason,  by 
setting  up  his  Categorical  Imperative,  and  the  normative  ideas  of 
God,  Liberty  and  Immortality.  But  there  is  a  fallacy  in  all  this. 
A  man  cannot  hold  one  thing  philosophically,  and  another  morally. 
We  cannot  teach  one  way  scientifically,  and  the  contrary  privately. 
Our  mind  will  not  permanently  tolerate  such  a  dualism.  If  you 
hold  to  your  private  view,  you  admit  the  impotence  and  the  failure 
of  your  scientific  method.  If  you  maintain  your  scientific  view, 
you  cut  away  every  honest  and  real  foundation  and  cannot  legiti- 
mately find  a  valid  point  of  rest  for  your  second  position.  This 
is  a  case  where  philosophically  "No  man  can  serve  two  masters." 
If  the  man  is  convinced  by  both  elements  in  a  contradiction,  the 
only  true  course  is  to  say :  Here  are  two  things  contradictory 
to  my  mind.  I  must  believe  in  a  hidden  and  ulterior  harmony 
in  both,  which  I  cannot  now  see ;  or  in  some  mistake  in  my  reason- 
ing on  the  one  or  the  other  side;  and  therefore  I  do  practically 
the  best  I  can  and  wait  for  more  light  toward  the  solution. 

Otherwise  there  is  a  permanent  dualism  of  principle  in  the 
mind  which  invalidates  thought  and  either  paralyzes  or  corrupts 
action. 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  245 

ON  NEGATIVE  THEOLOGY 
(A  letter  to  his  sister  Emma  ivhile  at  College.) 
I  am  surprised  at  the  nature  of  the  books  you  will  use.  Instead 
of  being  largely  philosophical,  they  are  strictly  theological,  and 
will  not  give  you  the  metaphysical  training  you  so  much  desired 
in  a  college  education.  And — what  is  more  important  to  me — 
the  course  is  even  more  negative  and  rationalistic  than  I  supposed. 
These  works  are  all  specialties  in  the  line  of  theology,  and 
I  do  not  see  where  your  philosophy  comes  in.  They  do 
not  teach  anything  outside  of  criticism,  and  history,  on  a  theo- 
logical theory  which  we  Lutherans  condemn  from  top  to  bottom. 
I  know  that  Father  would  never  have  consented  to  my  taking  up 
such  a  theological  course,  even  after  I  had  gone  through  the 
university,  much  less  when  I  began  my  college  course.  My  own 
position  is  a  little  different.  I  feel  that  you  have  a  right  to 
examine  into  these  teachings  if  you  feel  that  you  ought;  but  I 
also  feel  that  it  is  not  fair  to  the  orthodox  Bible  truth  that  you 
should  do  so  before  you  have  given  your  mind  an  opportunity 
to  examine  the  other  and  more  positive  side.  In  other  words, 
it  is  right  first  to  be  well  grounded  in  positive  and  orthodox 
teaching;  and  only  then  are  you  doing  justice  to  the  faith  of 
the  fathers.  To  take  up  the  criticism  of  the  orthodox,  before  you 
have  studied  the  orthodox,  is  not  fair  to  the  latter.  It  is  hearing 
only  the  one  side,  the  side  now  popular  and  current ;  and  is  re- 
versing the  proper  historical  order.    You  will  not  hear  both  sides 

either  at    or  at  any  other  secular  institution  in  the 

land,  and  you  can  hardly  fail  to  be  influenced  by  certain  general 
ways  of  thinking  and  by  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  new  spirit 
lives.  The  whole  subject  is  strictly  technical  and  one  cannot 
weigh  it  judicially  by  a  few  years'  college  work  on  it,  and  yet 
one  will  hardly  ibe  able  to  escape  the  infectious  spirit  prevailing. 
One  cannot  argue  with  the  Professors  or  take  the  opposite  side 
because  the  greater  weight  of  learning  is  against  you.  It  is  only 
if  you  are  a  thorough  expert  on  the  details,  at  first  hand,  that  you 
can  undertake  argument  with  those  whose  knowledge  of  facts  is 
so  large  and  comprehensive,  and  whose  theories  are  so  plausible. 
I  know,  my  dear  sister,  through  what  a  conflict  I  passed  for  years 
before  I  reached  my  present  position  by  honest  conviction,  and 
I  know  how  many  learned  men  in  theology  are  miserable  today 


246  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

because  they  are  unable  to  come  to  conviction,  and  I  would 
spare  you  the  treading  of  the  terrible  path  if  I  could. 

If  you  enter  it,  you  will  either  have  to  go  through  your  work 
perfunctorily  and  artificially,  determined  not  to  present  the  funda- 
mental issues  to  your  mind  and  to  remain  orthodox  at  all  costs ; 
or  you  will  present  issues  and  reach  results  in  sympathy  with  your 
surroundings  (and  undermine  your  faith  as  you  have  held  it)  ; 
or  you  will  have  to  fight  your  way  through  the  thralldom  and 
fascination  and  weight  of  learning  of  all  your  authorities  and 
professors — a  terrible  undertaking;  one  which  you  are  capable 
of,  but  which  I  do  not  see  the  use  or  value  of,  unless  you  expect 
to  make  theology  your  one  single  specialty. 

I  cannot  advise  you  what  to  do,  not  being  on  the  ground  or 
understanding  the  circumstances,  nor  would  I  feel  authorized 
to  say  much  to  you  in  influencing  you,  except  for  the  deep  love 
I  have  for  you  as  a  ibrother.  What  you  are  to  learn  is  what 
I  am  giving  my  life  and  strength  and  all  the  powers  of  my 
mind  to  antagonize ;  and  it  is  my  hope  and  prayer  that  these 
views  will  never  take  possession  of  the  Church.  I  am  not  preju- 
diced against  them,  however,  in  so  far  as  they  are  questions  of 
fact,  and  my  mind  is  fairly  open  to  all  evidence  these  men  may 
be  able  to  present.     I  have  said  enough. 


THE  LUTHERAN   CONCEPTION  OF  SALVATION 

Our  trust  is  not  salvation  by  science,  and  therefore  we  are 
against  rationalism  which  sets  man's  own  thinking  above  the  truth 
of  God.  Our  salvation  is  not  by  religious  ceremony,  and  there- 
fore we  are  against  ritualism,  which  externalizes  the  service  of 
God  into  a  sacred  and  passing  show. 

Our  salvation  is  not  iby  tumultuous  feeling,  and  therefore  we 
are  against  emotionalism  which  makes  light  of  facts  and  history 
and  centers  all  on  passing  currents  in  the  soul. 

Our  trust  is  not  in  salvation  by  meditation,  and  therefore  we 
are  against  mysticism  which  raises  the  soul  to  God  by  an  inner 
and  poetic  sight. 

These  are  extremes  and  one-sided.  From  them  spring  Sweden- 
borgianism,  spiritualism.  Christian  Science,  theosophy,  occultism, 
and  many  of  the  superficial  religions  of  the  moment. 

Lutheranism  clings  to  God's  Written  Word.     Her  motto  is  the 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  247 

Word  of  God,  the  whole  Word  of  God,  and  nothing  but  the 
Word  of  God,  not  as  a  prescriptive  letter,  but  as  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation.  . 

In  the  law  and  the  prophets,  in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  we 
find  one  mighty  principle,  the  man  who  can  stand  before  God 
and  live,  the  man  who  is  counted  just  in  His  sight,  so  to  say 
the  good  man,  is  so  by  faith  only.  He  is  saved  by  his  confidence 
in  that  which  he  f^nds  in  the  written  Word  of  God,  by  his  trust 
in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  which  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin. 

ON  CONFESSIONALISM 
In  a  letter,  dated  November  22>,  1907,  he  writes :  The  diflference 
between  the  Confessions  of  the  Church  and  modern  and  up-to- 
date  personal  confessions  is  this,  that  the  great  confessions  of 
the  Church  were  born  out  of  the  heart  of  the  Church's  history, 
are  a  fruitage  of  the  travail  of  the  human  race,  and  are  a  precious 
possession  given  to  us  by  the  Providence  of  God.  Such  confes- 
sions are  only  possible  in  great  epochs  of  faith,  like  the  Refor- 
mation, and  not  in  mere  critical  epochs,  such  as  our  own  Twentieth 

Century.  i.        ,        ^i. 

The  Lutheran  Church  can  never  survive  unless  she  takes  tne 
ground  that  Confessionalism  is  the  Church  providentially  guided 
to  put  the  Bible  into  a  nut-shell  in  order  to  guide  the  faith  of 
her  children ;  and  that  this  guidance  is  as  necessary  today  as  ever. 
Too  much  is  made  of  the  thought  that  the  old  Confessions  are 
not  f^nal.  They  are  final  so  far  as  they  go,  that  is  so  far  as 
their  doctrines  are  concerned.  The  important  thing  about  any 
confession  is  its  doctrine,  and  not  its  form.  We  must  not  give 
our  rising  generation  the  idea  that  the  old  Confessions  are  not 
final  They  are  final,  until  God  in  His  Providence  raises  up  a 
mighty  and  terrible  spiritual  epoch,  in  which  a  new  confession 
will  be,  not  written  by  the  hand  of  man,  ibut  born  out  of  the 
heart  of  history.  And  this  new  Confession  will  be  but  a  re- 
echoing of  the  old  truths  in  a  certain  sense.  The  Confession  is 
more  powerful  for  ecclesiastical  use  than  the  Scripture  itself. 
The  Scripture  is  like  a  field  of  wheat.  It  is  sown  promiscuously 
into  all  kinds  of  ground  into  the  fields  of  history.  The  Confes- 
sion is  the  kernels  gathered  together,  ground  into  flour,  and  put 
into  a  loaf  of  bread.     In  other  words,  confessions  are  the  vital 


248  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

principles  of  truth  separated  from  the  historical  Scriptural  en- 
vironment in  which  they  have  sprung  up.  The  Church's  con- 
fession is  as  important  to  it  as  the  individual's  Confession  of  the 
Lx>rd  Jesus  is  important  to  him.  Confessions  are  Scripture 
assimilated,  and  ready  for  the  production  of  new  strength.  Now 
to  regard  them  simply  as  human  is  doing  them  an  injustice.  It 
is  to  put  all  stress  on  the  assimilating  process,  which  is  human, 
ibut  necessary,  and  it  is  to  ignore  the  divine  elements  which  fur- 
nish the  strength  of  that  assimilation. 

There  are  only  two  roads  possible  to  a  great  Church,  the 
one  is  the  road  of  opportunism;  and  the  other  is  the  road  of 
principle.  Opportunism  magnifies  organization,  and  other  outer 
facts.  Confessionalism  magnifies  the  real  substance  of  the  Word 
of  God. 

It  is  true  that  we  must  guard  against  hyper-con fessionalism. 
But  there  is  very  little  danger  of  that  today.  Half  a  century 
ago,  when  Dr.  Krauth  was  in  his  prime,  that  danger  was  to  be 
reckoned  with.  But  the  pendulum  has  swung  to  the  other  side 
since  then,  and  we  must  similarly  realize  that  which  will  meet 
the  opposite  danger. 


LUTHER  AND  THE  NEW  THEOLOGY 

Luther  was  not  a  lawyer,  and  was  not  drawn  to  the  decrees 
of  God.  Luther  was  not  a  judge,  and  was  not  inclined  to  the 
abstract  truths  of  God.  Luther  was  not  an  artist  and  was  not 
affected  by  the  imaginative  and  scenic  side  of  faith,  in  which 
salvation  is  portrayed  as  a  subjective  thing,  as  ideal  as  a  painted 
ship  upon  a  painted  ocean. 

Luther  was  not  a  society  man,  and  did  not  regard  the  Church 
as  an  institute  for  the  development  of  social  values. 

Luther  was  not  a  reform  man,  reform  being  the  exception 
and  not  the  happy  habitus  of  his  life.  Luther  was  not  a  mystic, 
but  Luther  was  an  honest,  humble-hearted  sinner,  sinking  under 
the  inner  burdens  of  conscience,  and  needing  and  finding  the  Son 
of  God  to  set  him  on  his  feet  and  restore  his  peace.  In  Christ  he 
found  everything,  and  his  heart  was  at  rest. 

Luther  was  the  heart- man.  He  was  the  man  of  reality,  of 
trust  and  confidence,  of  the  great  elemental  common  precious 
things  of  life.     Therefore  Lutheranism  has  a  faith  that  appeals 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  249 

to  the  home  feeling  and  goes  straight  to  the  heart,  like  the  old 
song  "Home  Sweet  Home,"  with  no  one-sided  or  fanatical,  but 
with  a  healthy,  emotion. 

The  Lutheran  Gospel  is  the  Gospel  of  salvation,  and  therein 
we  differ  from  the  new  theology.  The  new  theology  is  a  modern 
paganism  which  glorifies  the  existing  goodness  of  human  nature 
(and  believes  in  its  uhimate  perfect  evolution). 

The  new  theology  rises  (beyond  the  authority  of  Scripture,  and 
declares  that  philosophy  and  science  have  given  the  final  concep- 
tion of  the  universe.  Scripture  is  not  the  only  rule  of  faith, 
it  is  not  a  direct  revelation,  (and  its  ethical  and  religious  value 
are  just  as  strong  after  its  historical  character   is  disproven). 

The  new  theology  sets  aside  the  doctrine  that  Christ  is  our 
propitiation  and  that  we  are  saved  through  the  blood  of  Christ. 
To  it  divinity  is  of  the  essence  of  all  humanity,  and  all  humanity's 
greatest  thinkers  are  inspired. 

It  urges  that  instead  of  trying  to  believe  that  we  are  lost  sin- 
ners, we  should  (at  once,  without  repentance)  realize  that  we 
are  the  children  of  God,  and  that  this  child-like  relation  is  the 
essence  of  all  religion. 

The  new  theology  declares  that  if  we  have  done  wrong,  we 
shall  resolve  to  do  right,  and  God  will  receive  us.  It  does  not 
believe  that  there  is  no  other  name  under  heaven  than  the  name 
of  Jesus  whereby  men  may  be  saved,  but  it  believes  that  the  good 
God  (who  is  the  Father  of  us  all),  has  put  some  good  into  every 
heart,  and  that  if  we  give  this  good,  ivhich  u'a^  born  i»  us,  a 
chance,  we  shall  be  saved. 

The  new  theology  follows  Erasmus  and  not  Luther.  It  does  not 
say, 

"The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit." 
Its  chief  prayer  is  not,  "Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O  God. 
Cast  me  not  away  from  thy  presence  and  take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit 
from  me." 


ON    PROGRESSIVE    CONSERVATISM 
(In  reply  to  a  letter  requesting  an  opinion  on  "Progressive  Con- 
servatism  in   the   Lutheran    Church,"   he   writes   on   October   25, 
1912)  : 
A  progressive  conservatism  seeks  that  which  is  of  value,  that 


250  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

which  is  specific  and  distinctive  in  its  own  root,  and  strives  to 
develop  it  to  flourish  in  growth  along  the  lines  of  its  own  divinely- 
ordered  life. 

If  conservatism  has  become  too  fossilized  and  degenerated,  it 
may  be  necessary  to  graft  a  more  vigorous  shoot  in  the  old  stock, 
but  it  should  be  a  shoot  of  the  same  species,  and  should  look  to 
the  bringing  forth  of  its  own  perfections,  and  not  to  an  imitation 
of  the  perfections  which  are  found  in  other  species  of  spiritual 
vitality. 

The  Lutheran  Church  will  never  grow  as  long  as  we  are 
looking  for  our  progressiiveness  to  what  others  outside  of  us 
are  doing  and  are  using  up  our  strength  in  adopting  their  devices 
and  in  imitating  them.  We  shall  never  be  able  to  reproduce 
their  finest  fruit  or  flower,  and  we  shall  be  depreciating  and  failing 
to  give  attention  to  our  own. 

Let  us  take  the  strong  elements  and  qualities  and  character  of 
faith  and  life  that  inhere  in  our  own  Gospel,  in  our  own  confes- 
sion, and  in  our  own  Church;  let  us  plant  this  seed  without  doubt. 
Let  us  be  assured  that  it  is  the  richest,  the  strongest,  and  the 
most  genuine  Christianity  in  the  world.  Let  us  labor  patiently 
to  keep  the  soil  cultivated,  to  prune  the  trees,  to  keep  them  free 
from  all  parasitic  and  other  destroyers,  and  our  own  inherent 
vitality  will  assert  itself  and  bring  forth  splendid  results. 

Progressive  conservatism  is  the  application  of  our  own  treasures 
in  an  up-to-date  way,  to  the  problems  of  the  Kingdom  of  God 
and  of  the  life  about  us.  This  application  should  not  'be  anti- 
quated, but  should  be  vigorous  and  enlightened.  It  should  begin 
with  that  which  is  nearest  at  home  to  us,  in  the  greater  issues 
of  faith  and  life,  within  our  own  congregation,  and  should  only 
be  extended  outward  as  we  gather  a  sufficiency  of  internal  strength 
to  gradually  assume  the  larger  and  larger  burdens  of  the  greater 
world  beyond. 

In  this  view  I  am  in  direct  conflict  with  the  Modem  American 
religious  spirit,  which  will  assume  to  itself  all  the  protblems  of 
God's  Kingdom  and  society  in  the  heavens  above,  in  the  earth 
beneath  and  in  the  waters  under  the  earth,  and  will  pass  resolu- 
tions attacking  them  all,  and  institute  energies  touching  them  all, 
but  thoroughly  disposing  of  none  of  them. 

In  my  judgment  the  Church,  like  the  individual,  has  the  duty 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  251 

of  refusing  to  do  good;  if,  thereby,  she  is  kept  in  a  swamped 
and  over-weighted  condition,  and  is  unable  to  do  any  eflFective 
good  anywhere. 

It  is  our  duty  to  select  that  which  is  most  important  and  most 
pressing  and  to  keep  on  selecting  up  to  the  full  limits  of  our 
strength,  and  when  we  have  once  removed  a  burden,  to  keep  on 
continuously  and  never  cease  until  we  have  disposed  of  it  victo- 
riously, and  meantime,  as  strength  accumulates,  taking  on  new 
loads  of  responsibility. 

It  is  also  our  duty  to  leave  many  fields  of  endeavor  absolutely 
untouched,  on  our  part,  and  until  we  are  able  to  support  the  new 
growth  which  we  have  induced.  To  call  up  new  growths  on  every 
side  is  progress  indeed ;  but  to  let  them  perish  as  soon  as  the 
heat  of  the  day  begins  to  be  felt,  is  worse  than  not  to  have 
attempted  so  large  a  task. 


ON  LUTHERAN  UNION 

(The  following  questions  submitted  to  him  in  1916  were  an- 
swered as  follows)  : 

Question  i. — Do  you  think  there  are  any  doctrinal  barriers, 
sufficient  to  make  organic  co-operation  betxveen  the  general 
body  of  which  you  are  a  member,  and  the  other  Synodical  bodies 
in  the  follomng  list,  impossible:  Getteral  Council,  United  Synod 
of  the  South,  German  loiva  Synod,  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  General 
Synod? 

It  is  my  belief  that  there  are  no  such  impossible  doctrinal  bar- 
riers. The  chief  impediments,  to  my  mind,  are  those  that  arise 
from  other  sources : 

1.  From  practices  in  the  various  bodies  which  are  inconsistent 
with  the  doctrine  which  the  ibodies  profess; 

2.  From  a  failure  to  speak  right  and  judge  generously  of  those 
outside  of  ourselves ; 

3.  From  a  narrow  desire  to  put  one's  own  Synod  or  General 
Body  before  the  welfare  of  the  Church  as  a  whole;  that  is,  from 
the  habit  of  interpreting  the  life,  work,  and  progress  of  the 
Church  in  the  terms  of  one's  own  organization. 

Question   2. — Is    the    time    ripe    for    such    organic    federation? 
Would  you  welcome  a  movement  in  that  direction? 
I  do  not  believe  in  federation.     Federation  is  no  solution.     Its 


252  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

aim  is  to  continue  the  independence  of  each  separate  unit  with 
only  a  nominal  general  alliance. 

The  time  is  ripe  for  actual  co-operation  of  the  various  General 
Bodies  with  each  other  along  all  lines  in  which  the  practical 
works  of  the  Church  are  being  carried  out  through  parallel  organi- 
zations that  are  willing  to  co-operate,  e.  g.,  Missions,  Home  and 
Foreign,   Publications,   etc.,  etc. 

Question  3. — What  should  be  the  functions  and  scope  of  action 
of  such  a  general  body?  In  other  words,  what  should  such 
"organic  co-operation"  amount  to? 

I  do  not  think  that  the  start  should  be  made  by  organizing  a 
new  General  Body,  but  that  a  standing  joint  committee  should  be 
appointed  to  investigate  the  facts  in  each  department  of  activity, 
and,  in  consultation  with  the  various  boards  representing  these 
activities,  should  recommend  what  steps  of  co-operation  are  pos- 
sible in  the  immediate  future,  and  what  further  steps  will  be 
possible  in  a  few  years  to  come.  Thus  the  work  of  the  Church 
should  be  knit  together  along  the  lines  of  the  most  promising 
possibilities,  and  where  there  is  least  resistance,  with  a  growing 
unity  step  by  step,  and  looking  toward  a  larger  and  final  unity. 

This  final  unity  should  not  be  pushed,  but  should  at  any  given 
time,  embrace  such  conjoint  activities  to  the  extent  to  which, 
and  not  further,  each  particular  sphere  is  willing  to  join  in  with 
other  spheres  in  the  other  bodies. 

After  this  work  has  been  inaugurated  and  has  been  growing, 
at  some  favoralble  season,  the  general  bodies  should  hold  a  regu- 
larly elected  delegate  convention,  to  organize  a  final  general  body 
which,  in  the  beginning,  would  take  over  only  such  functions 
as  have  already  become  organically  united  in  practice. 

This  is  the  experimental  and  practical  method  of  attaining 
Church  unity,  starting  from  the  concrete  and  growing  naturally 
toward  the  general.  I  am  satisfied  that  by  the  use  of  this  method 
a  united  Lutheran  Church  will  become  an  actual  and  effective 
fact  in  this  country  long  before  it  could  be  reached  by  a  theoreti- 
cal construction  begun  through  the  immediate  organization  of  a 
tentative  general  body.  I  do  not  believe  that  Federation  will 
ever  arrive  at  unity. 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  253 

ON  LUTHERAN  PULPITS  FOR  LUTHERAN  MINISTERS 

(When  asked  his  opinion  about  the  Galesburg  Rule  by  a  Luth- 
eran pastor,  he  writes,  February  24,  1917,  as  follows)  : 

We  must  (be  careful  not  to  degenerate  into  undue  emphasis 
upon  mere  mechanical  dogmatic  rule  on  external  decisions. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  Conference  does  its  duty  if  it  merely 
passes  a  rule  on  the  subject  and  does  not  systematically  attempt 
to  reach  the  conviction  of  the  people  by  a  plan  of  instruction  which 
will  give  the  laity  as  well  as  the  clergy  the  right  conscience  on 
the  subject. 

In  general,  for  an  officer  of  the  church,  or  a  Conference,  or  a 
minister,  to  enforce  any  rule  on  the  Church  without  first  making 
a  serious  attempt  to  enlighten  the  minds  and  gain  the  convictions 
and  consciences  of  the  people  in  behalf  of  that  rule,  is  a  legalistic, 
Reformed,  and  not  a  Lutheran,  principle.  To  carry  the  laity  with 
you  in  your  convictions  involves  a  vast  amount  of  labor  and 
patience,  and  less  radical  methods,  but  it  not  only  pays  in  the 
end,  it  is  also  the  right  principle. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  keynote  of  our  position  is  that  we 
hold  to  the  Lutheran  principle  including  the  Four  Points  just 
as  strongly  as  they  (Ohio  and  Missouri)  do,  but  that  we  do  not 
approve  of  a  legalistic  method  of  enforcing  our  position,  because 

1.  It  is  a  matter  of  unenlightened  conscience.  Three  of  the 
Four  Points  are  nowhere  taught  in  so  many  words  in  Scripture. 
They  are  not  revealed  in  clear  specific  passages,  such  as  are  the 
doctrine  of  the  Resurrection,  the  doctrine  of  the  forgiveness  of 
sins,  etc.  They  are  legitimate  deductions  from  Scripture,  but 
still  deductions,  and  it  requires  much  training,  insight,  and  many 
other  qualities,  to  enable  a  mind  which  is  sympathetically  and 
broadly  constituted  by  nature  to  assume  so  firm  a  position. 

2.  The  day  of  categorical  assertion,  with  simple  obedience 
thereunto  by  the  laity,  is  gone.  The  day  of  the  closed  mind  in 
religion  is  gone.  Dr.  Loy  had  such  a  closed  mind,  and  it  is  a 
type  characteristic  of  both  Ohio  and  Missouri.  All  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  are  fixed  and  settled  in  iron  framework.  It  is 
the  duty  of  the  faithful  simply  to  be  obedient  thereunto.  Investi- 
gation for  one's  self,  and  the  toilsome  process  of  arriving  at  a 
conviction  of  the  truth  by  considering  the   force  of  the  opposite 


254  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

side,  is  not  a  method  for  which  these  people  leave  much  place. 
Yet  this  is  the  American  method. 

Doctrine  and  truth  must  stand  on  their  merits,  and  not  on  the 
assertion  of  the  pastor  or  of  the  Church.  The  old  German  the- 
ory of  obedience  to  authority  cannot  be  successfully  maintained 
as  a  permanent  thing.  We  must  not  only  tolerate,  but  we  must 
welcome  intellectual  openness.  As  a  conclusion  from  this  it 
follows  that  we  must  not  hurriedly  close  the  doors  against  those 
who  are  uncertain,  who  are  eager  to  be  in  the  right,  but  who  do 
not  yet  see  the  right  as  we  see  it. 

3.  The  legalistic  attitude,  through  which  Church  discipline  is 
put  theoretically  on  the  same  level  as  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel 
is  one  that  cannot  but  result  in  the  end  in  the  subverting  of  the 
Gospel  and  in  the  prevalence  of  pharisaism. 


(In  another  letter  to  a  Lutheran  pastor  he  writes  on  August  27, 
1914)  : 

Life  is  larger  than  logic,  and  God  is  greater  than  man.  Hence 
man  has  no  right  to  press  his  logic  on  others  by  force,  and  the 
Church  must  not  devote  herself  chiefly  to  police  acts  of  repression. 
The  Word  of  God  gives  us  inspired  principles  and  some  inspired 
rules. 

But  a  rule  which  has  human  logic  in  it,  that  is,  which  is  an 
inference  from  inspired  principle,  still  retains  some  possibility  of 
error,  especially  as  to  its  form  and  application.  It  is  really 
rationalism  to  back  up  such  a  rule  by  the  force  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  We  may  feel  sure  that  we  are  right,  and  we  may  be 
almost  right,  and  still  be  lacking  the  divine  sanction  for  the  use 
of  force. 

God's  Church  will  never  prevail,  and  the  world  will  never  be 
saved,  through  discipline,  and  as  soon  as  it  becomes  the  prevailing 
spirit,  we  are  on  the  wrong  track.  Yet  discipline  ought  and  must 
be  exercised  by  the  Church,  but  not  as  a  rule,  but  only  as  the 
last  and  extreme  resort.  And  discipline  cannot  be  exercised  on 
the  basis  of  canons  or  rules  that  are  laid  down  by  the  leaders 
ibut  only  as  the  universal  conviction  and  consciousness  of  the 
Church  responds  to  their  ripeness. 

You  cannot  legislate  Gospel  convictions  into  the  people,  and 
you  cannot  discipline  on  the  basis  of  those  convictions  where  they 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  255 

do  not  exist,  without  laying  yourself  open  to  autocracy,  and  in 
some  cases  to  hypocrisy.  But  where,  through  education,  real  con- 
viction has  been  brought  about,  there  there  will  be  least  need 
for  discipline,  and  if  its  need  should  occur,  it  should  be  exercised 
promptly  and  fully. 

Our  "educational"  position  is  correct,  but  our  weakness  lies  in 
this :  that  where  discipline  really  ought  be  carried  out,  e.  g.,  in 
gross  and  open  sin,  we  fail  to  do  so.  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  Missouri  herself  often  fails  similarly. 

But  if  we  were  able  to  show  that  where  our  convictions  un- 
doubtedly are  at  one,  there  discipline  would  be  effectively  carried 
out,  our  position  would  be  impregnable. 

At  a  conference  of  German  synods  in  the  United  Lutheran 
Church  in  1917  he  said:  "No  union  of  the  Lutheran  Church  will 
ever  take  place  if  the  'Four  Points'  (Galesburg  Rule)  are  made 
the  condition  upon  which  it  is  to  be  based.  The  child  of  union 
was  killed  before  it  (the  General  Council)  was  born  when  the 
Four  Points  came  into  discussion." 


ON  LUTHERAN  DISUNITY 

The  plain,  bare  and  painful  fact  is  that  there  is  no  Lutheran 
Church  in  this  country,  which  can  as  suoh  deal  with  itself  or 
with  others.  We  are  not  a  United  States,  but  a  lot  of  South 
American  republics.  Before  we  get  at  leasit  some  treaty  relations 
between  ourselves,  we  cannot  act  as  a  unit  toward  others.  Our 
internal  disability  makes  any  proposed  external  effort  superficial, 
presumptuous,  and  even  dishonorable. 

As  a  business  proposition,  we  have  not  even  a  paper  capitaliza- 
tion. In  business  I  do  not  believe  in  going  in  beyond  the  limits 
of  proper  capitalization.  In  religion  we  must  not  over-capitalize 
the  confidence  of  the  Church  beyond  what  we  have  fair  reason 
to  believe  is  the  limit  of  our  backing.  Many  a  business  man  must 
leave  tremendous  opportunities  go  by  because  his  capital  ability  is 
so  small  that  his  venture  would  be  almost  purely  speculative.  If 
he  goes  beyond,  he  is  a  gambler. 

This  brings  us  to  the  question.  What  amount  of  confidence  have 
we  as  our  backing?  How  will  the  Church  ultimately  support  us? 
In  the  rapid  shifts  of  today,  this  is  a  great  problem.  Outside 
the  merger,  can  we  command  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,  Norway  and 


256  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Iowa?  We  cannot  on  this  issue  in  any  other  focus  than  the 
men  of  the  National  Committee.  If  they  give  their  affirmative 
judgment,  I  am  wilHng  to  take  the  risk.  If  they  do  not,  we  will 
not  fairly  represent  Lutheranism  to  an  American  public.  We 
represent  only  a  minority.  And,  at  this  moment  (i.  e.  until  the 
end  of  June),  it  is  uncertain  how  much  capital  even  the  small 
United  Church  will  represent. 

In  other  words,  to  me  it  seems  our  main  and  intensive  problem 
as  the  internal  one,  the  getting  of  sufficient  confidence  capital  to 
honestly  and  honorably  entitle  us  to-  represent  Lutheranism  be- 
fore the  outside  world.  If  we  have  only  a  comparative  minority 
back  of  us,  we  dare  not  in  conscience  move  as  the  representatives 
of  the  whole  or  the  large  majority.  However  painful  and  paralyz- 
ing it  is  to  our  cause,  honor  compels  us  to  admit  that  Lutheranism 
is  nothing  in  a  unity  sense,  that  we  must  mend  ourselves,  before 
we  appear  before  others.  We  have  succeeded  in  the  mending  in 
the  soldiers  and  sailors  cause,  but  that  cause  is  more  compelling 
in  moving  the  ivhole  heart  of  the  Church,  than  are  any  of  the 
permanent  issues.  If  we  can  use  that  one  point  to  draw  in  and 
convert  strength  for  our  more  regular  issues,  we  can  act  also 
with  respect  to  them,  we  can  move.  But  if  not,  we  are  mere 
opportunists,  adventurers,  and  take  a  gambler's  risk,  and  we  shall 
come  to  grief. 

Here  is  my  difficulty.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  a  position  to 
be  able  to  deliver  the  goods,  before  we  enter  into  contract  to  fur- 
nish it  to  outsiders.  Righteousness  is  here  at  stake.  Power  with- 
out righteousness  is  not  permanent,  and  will  ruin  our  American 
principle. 


ON  THE  LODGE  AND   PULPIT-FELLOWSHIP 
(The  follozving  statefnent  vifos  submitted  by  Dr.  Schniauk  to  a 
committee  of  the  National  Lutheran  Council  in  1920.) 

1.  The  attaching  one's  self  to  any  life-brotherhood  outside  of 
the  brotherhood  in  Christ  with  principles  and  rules  of  obedience 
which  may  or  may  not  be  in  conflict  with  the  Church  of  Christ, 
but  which  operates  independently  of  it,  sets  up  a  divided  allegiance. 
Our  Saviour  said  emphatically,  "No  man  can  serve  two  mas- 
ters"; and  it  is  especially  true  of  the  minister,  who  is  under 
solemn  vow  to  obey  Christ  alone,  and  who  is  the  official   repre- 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  257 

sentative  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  all  relations,  that  there  are 
many  situations  which  will  divide  his  allegiance.  A  whole-souled 
loyalty  to  two  life-covenants,  each  claiming  to  be  supreme  in  any 
field,  even  though  neither  in  itself  be  harmful,  is  impossible. 

2.  Secret  and  selective  organizations  of  a  few  among  the 
many  is  un-American,  and  is  a  relic  of  Old  World  and  aristocratic 
mediaevalism.  America  stands  for  openness  and  publicity  in  all 
associative  action  and  for  equality  in  fraternity.  The  Gospel 
itself  breaks  down  walls  of  special  partition  in  the  brotherhood 
of  men.  Fraternity  in  special  privilege,  especially  when  combined 
with  secrecy  of  direction  and  the  hidden  use  of  influence,  is  against 
the  spirit  of  democracy,  which  stands  on  public  and  open  merit. 
The  world  is  today  seeking  to  rid  itself  of  covenants,  cabals, 
treaties,  and  brotherhoods  that  operate  by  private  and  secret  un- 
derstanding, that  block  square  deals  without  assigning  the  reason 
why,  that  do  not  open  the  door  of  opportunity  freely  and  equally 
to  every  one  of  merit  wheresoever  he  may  be  found,  and  that  cul- 
tivate the  habit  and  attitude  of  planning  and  acting  without  public 
revelation  of  purpose. 

If  a  minister  be  united  in  a  special  selective  and  secret  brother- 
hood with  a  few  of  the  members  of  his  congregation  in  this 
(brotherhood,  while  the  great  majority,  including  women  and  chil- 
dren, are  outside  of  it,  it  will  be  well-nigh  impossible  for  him 
to  follow  and  apply  the  common  principles  of  Christianity  on  the 
common  and  American  ground  of  equal  privileges  and  responsibili- 
ties for  all,  to  every  member  in  his  congregation. 

Please  note  that  the  term  "secrecy"  comes  from  the  Latin 
secernere,  to  put  apart,  to  separate.  The  fundamental  idea  is 
to  shut  out  the  common  brotherhood  of  man,  to  keep  from  it 
certain  knowledge  and  purposes,  and  to  give  to  selected  ones  the 
special  privileges  of  an  exclusive  fraternity.  This  is  consonant 
neither  with  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  nor  with  those  of  the 
American  people. 

I  think,  too,  that  if  the  Lutheran  Church  takes  a  position  that 
in  general  its  fellowship  in  pulpit  and  altar  is  not  for  non- 
Lutherans,  that  that  fact  in  itself  has  a  direct  bearing  on  the 
principle  of  secret  societies.  Not  only  non-Lutherans,  but  Unita- 
rians, Jews,  and  non-Christians,  are  admitted  to  membership  and 
participation  in  the  religious  fellowship  and  burial  of  these 
R 


258  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

societies.  Any  organization  that  claims  the  right  to  bury  a  man 
with  its  own  rite  which  is  outside  of,  even  if  not  contradictory  to, 
the  rite  of  the  Christian  Church,  predicates  a  fellowship  of  faith 
and  eternal  life  which  is  different  from  that  of  Christianity  in 
our  pulpits  and  at  our  altars,  and  we  cannot  in  consistency  refuse 
to  draw  those  lines  also  at  the  grave. 

ON  UN-CHRISTIAN  SOCIETIES 
Any  association  or  society  which  has  religious  exercises  from 
which  the  name  of  the  Triune  God  or  the  name  of  Jesus,  as  a 
matter  of  principle,  is  excluded,  or  which  teaches  salvation 
through  works,  must,  according  to  Holy  Scripture,  be  regarded 
as  in  its  very  nature  incompatible  with  the  faith  and  confession 
of  the  Christian  Church  and  more  especially  the  Lutheran 
Church,  whether  this  be  realized  or  not. 


ON  CO-OPERATION 

1.  There  is  no  point  of  doctrine  involved  in  membership  in  the 
American  Bible  Society.  The  Bilble  is  a  common  heritage  of 
Christianity,  and  it  is  a  good  thing  for  Lutherans  to  aid  in  its 
common  distribution.  To  do  so  is  as  little  wrong  for  a  Lutheran 
as  it  is  for  the  Lutheran  Church  to  make  use  of  the  King  James 
version  in  her  services. 

2.  Membership  in  a  company  of  Bible  revisers  stands  on  the 
same  grounds,  though,  if  the  said  company  of  revisers  should 
insist  on  translating  such  a  passage  as  "This  is  my  body,"  by 
"This  is  an  emblem  of  my  body,"  a  point  of  doctrine  would  be 
involved  in  the  co-operation. 

3.  There  is  no  point  of  doctrine  involved  in  attendance  on 
any  higher  educational  school,  whether  it  be  a  college,  a  university, 
or  summer  school,  so  long  as  the  public  impartation  of  religious 
truth  be  not  one  of  its  objects.  The  Pennsylvania  Chautauqua, 
for  instance,  especially  in  its  earlier  days,  was  a  summer  school 
of  this  type.  It  was,  we  believe,  the  only  institution  of  the  kind 
in  the  country  which  did  not  adopt  the  principles  of  the  Mother 
Chautauqua,  and  had  no  dependence  upon  it.  That  it  did  not 
originate  as  a  mild  type  of  religious  camp-meeting,  with  union 
religious    meetings    and    some    educational    institution    thrown    in. 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS    AND    ISSUES  259 

is  due  prdbably  to  the  efforts  of  the  writer  more  than  to  any 
one  else.  In  order  to  prevent  an  institution  of  this  kind  from 
becoming  a  religious  pleasure  resort  in  the  heart  of  Lutheran 
Lancaster  and  Lebanon  counties,  the  writer  went  into  the  move- 
ment in  its  incipiency,  and,  at  the  time  of  his  resignation  was 
probably  the  only  one  of  the  first  originators  still  actively  inter- 
eS'ted.  The  institution  was  carried  on  strictly  as  a  school  for  some 
years,  with  the  heads  of  the  public  school  system  of  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania  in  close  official  touch  with  it ;  and,  even  at  present, 
we  believe,  the  institution  is  a  part  of  the  public  school  system 
of  the  state,  receiving  an  appropriation  of  several  thousand  dollars 
a  year  from  the  State  Treasury  as  one  of  the  state's  educational 
institutions.  The  writer  has  not  been  connected  with  this  insti- 
tution for  many  years,  to  the  unanimous  regret  (so  they  said) 
of  the  Chautauquans,  and  resigned  partly  because  he  found  that 
his  name  on  the  letter  head  of  the  blanks  of  this  institution,  and 
his  oflficial  contact  with  men  of  all  kinds  of  religious  convictions 
from  an  agnostic  like  John  Fiske  and  evolutionists  like  Lyman 
Abbott  on  the  one  hand,  to  Roman  Catholic  priests  on  the  other, 
was  so  liable  to  be  misunderstood  as  a  religious  endorsement,  and 
made  such  great  demands  on  his  time  to  prevent  a  religious  com- 
promise on  his  part,  that  he  considered  it  safe,  as  a  Lutheran,  since 
the  institution  was  no  longer  in  a  situation  to  aflfect  the  contiguous 
territory  in  a  religious  way  to  resign  his  connection.  In  this  he 
was  supported  by  the  word  of  his  friend.  Dr.  Trumbull,  who 
himself  also  on  very  different  grounds  always  declined  to  notice 
any  of  the  Chautauqua  movements  in  this  country.  That  word 
was  that  "there  is  a  duty  of  refusing  to  do  good." 

4.  There  is  no  point  of  doctrine  involved  in  attendance  or  par- 
ticipation in  a  common  service  at  sea,  at  a  hotel  on  a  night  too 
stormy  to  venture  forth  to  places  of  worship,  or  at  any  point 
where  participation  would  not  naturally  be  understood,  or  be 
taken  advantage  of  by  any  others  as  an  acceptance  and  endorse- 
ment, and  where  the  situation  is  a  temporary  one.  Of  course 
there  may  very  easily  be  a  compromise  here.  The  writer  does 
not  believe  that  he  could,  as  a  Lutheran,  participate  in  such  an 
institution  as  Northfield,  because  it  is  the  center  of  a  prevailing 
type  of  religion,  and  of  many  new  expounders  of  new  religious 
types,   which  as   a   Lutheran    he   would   probably   not   be    able   to 


260  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

endorse.     While  probably  he  could  not  participate  in   the  move- 
ment, it  might  be  proper  for  him  to  attend  the  meetings. 

5.  Lack  of  participation  does  not  involve  any  personal  dis- 
respect, nor  necessarily  condemnation.  In  particular  it  does  not 
involve  condemnation  of  any  part  of  common  faith. 

6.  Individual  attendance  is  a  different  thing  from  clerical 
participation,  especially  in  cases  where  denominations  are  apt  to 
presume  a  complete  unity  in  the  brotherhood,  and  to  assume  the 
other's  official  recognition. 


DANGERS     TO     THE     LUTHERAN     CHURCH     IN     CO- 
OPERATING WITH  REVIVAL  MOVEMENTS 

1.  The  revivalist  slurs  the  Church  as  corrupt,  and  church 
members  as  hypocrites.  The  pious,  humble-minded,  devout,  meek 
worshipers,  who  are  well-pleasing  in  Christ's  eye  for  their  in- 
conspicuousness  and  fidelity,  are  discounted,  and  the  agitator  is 
set  on  a  pedestal. 

2.  The  true  spiritual  method  of  regularly  sowing  the  seed  of 
God's  Word  in  the  heart,  and  allowing  it  to  grow  graciously  and 
gradually,  is  discounted  in   favor  of  volcanic  upheaval. 

3.  Not  only  is  reverence  for  sacred  things  destroyed,  but  the 
taste  for  modesty,  purity,  and  refinement  are  set  in  the  back- 
ground. The  dramatic  staging  and  imagery  of  the  saloon,  brothel 
and  the  horsemarket  are  set  ibefore  school  children  as  vehicles  of 
religious  instruction. 

4.  The  Lutheran  doctrines  of  both  Sacraments  are  completely 
ignored. 

5.  The  Lutheran  method  of  catechetical  instruction,  and 
Christian  nurture  in  general,  is  ignored. 

6.  The  Lutheran  doctrine  of  ordination,  and  especially  the 
Lutheran  teaching  of  pulpit  fellowship,  and  the  general  teaching 
of  the  Church  order  in  the  ministry,  is  ignored.  The  sanction, 
guarantee  and  call  of  a  revivalist  is  in  his  success,  cUid  not  in  his 
relation  to  pure  doctrine  and  the  Word  of  God. 

7.  A  minister  who  joins  honestly  in  a  union  movement  would 
have  to  admit  the  evangelist  or  revivalist  into  his  own  pulpit,  and 
allow  him  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  would  thereby 
be  eliminating  everything  distinctive  for  which  the  Lutheran 
Church  stands. 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  261 

8.  Lutheran  people  get  accustomed  to  hearing  the  liturgy  of 
their  service  and  all  ritual  condemned  and  abused. 

9.  Lutheran  people  acquire  a  distaste  for  the  regular  preach- 
ing of  the  Word  of  God,  and  for  services  that  are  devout  but 
not  sensational.  They  neglect  their  regular  duties  and  regular 
giving  in  favor  of  these  extraordinary  efforts.  By  joining  in 
these  union  movements  the  Lutheran  Church  endorses  and  abets 
the  preaching  of  the  worst  errors  and  even  of  heresies  on  the 
part  of  irresponsible  evangelists,  such  as  salvation  by  character, 
and  as  confusing  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  mob  in- 
stinct and  emotional  craziness.  Lutherans  cannot  have  fellowship 
with  errorists. 

10.  The  Lutheran  Church  has  a  terrible  example  behind  it, 
which  has  set  it  back  for  two  generations,  which  split  the  Luth- 
eran Church  into  two,  and  created  untold  woe,  in  the  support  of 
union  movements  and  revivals  given  by  part  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  1837  and  later.  The  General  Synod  has  only  in  these 
las't  years  ibeen  recovering  from  the  mistake  which  she  then  made 
in  entering  into  union  movements. 

11.  The  Lutheran  Church  has  never  gained  from  such  move- 
ments. In  union  movements  converts  to  Christianity  are  made  on 
a  very  slender  basis.  Usually  walking  down  the  sawdust  trail, 
or  shaking  hands,  completes  the  transaction.  Many  of  the  people 
who  are  thus  heralded  as  converts  are  excited  and  misinformed 
church  members.  Nearly  all  of  the  reported  gains  which  are 
turned  over  to  Lutheran  pastors  from  such  movements  are  found 
to  be  composed  of  people  in  their  own  church  who  have  been 
caught  by  the  revival  feeling,  and  who,  though  they  may  have 
been  good  Christians  all  their  life,  stand  up  to  be  prayed  for, 
or  go  front  to  the  altar  to  be  saved. 

12.  The  Lutheran  Church  cannot  preserve  her  distinctive  doc- 
trines and  being,  and  yet  enter  heartily  into  revivals  inaugurated 
by  the  Reformed  type  of  Christianity.  If  we  are  impeding  the 
cause  of  Christ  by  not  entering  into  these  revivals,  the  question 
arises  whether  we  are  not  impeding  the  cause  of  Christ  by  main- 
taining a  distinct  denominational  existence.  If  the  Lutheran  way  of 
salvation  by  the  pure  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  use  of 
the  sacraments,  is  not  the  right  way,  or  not  efficient,  then  the  ques- 
tion is  a  much  larger  one  than  merely  entering  into  union  move- 


262  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

merits.     For  us  to  enter  into  union  movements  is  to  confess  the 
failure  of  Lutheranism. 

13.  Union  movements  of  the  day  are  really  an  invasion  of 
ibusiness  and  of  the  layman  into  the  province  of  the  ministry 
and  the  church  in  the  belief  that  he  has  principles  which  are 
better  than  the  old-fashioned  proclamation  of  God's  Word.  It 
is  a  part  of  the  democratic  socialization  of  the  age,  and  rests  on 
an  indifference  to  God's  pure  doctrine  and  a  disregard  of  proper 
order  or  authority  in  the  church. —  (Probably  written  in  1915.) 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  AND  EXTERNAL 
RELATIONSHIPS 

(In  1907,  when  the  question  of  union  and  co-operation  among  Lutherans 
was  discussed,  the  writer  had  requested  theses  from  Dr.  Schmauk  on 
the  still  larger  question  of  the  Church's  relationship  to  non-Lutheran 
communions,  for  publication  in  The  Lutheran.  Eighty-three  such  theses 
were  prepared  by  him;  but  he  later  considered  them  to  be  of  such  im- 
portance as  to  need  careful  revision.  The  promised  revision  was  not 
made.  When  The  United  Lutheran  Church  was  formed,  the  writer  called 
Dr.  Knubel's  attention  to  those  theses  as  being  of  value  in  helping  to 
shape  the  new  body's  policy  in  its  relation_  to  the  much-mooted  questions 
of  interdenominational  union  and  co-operation.  Correspondence  with  Dr. 
Schmauk  resulted  in  the  enlargement  and  revision  of  the  Theses.  They 
set  forth  what  he  conceived  to  be  a  correct  and  safe  attitude  on  this  im- 
portant  question,    the    main   portion    of    which    is   herewith    given.) 

STAGES    OF    PARTICIP.\TI0N     IN    THE    COMMON     WELFARE 

1 .    Neighborliness 

This,  according  to  the  Gospel  involves  love ;  such  love  as  the 
Father  has  for  all  when  He  makes  His  sun  to  shine  on  the  just 
and  unjust,  and  as  Christ  manifests  to  all  in  his  relations,  even  to 
those  who  were  opposed  to  Him.  It  involves  the  expression  of 
good-will,  but  does  not  imply  an3i;hing  as  to  the  approval  of 
either  the  principles,  the  character,  or  the  action  of  our  fellowmen. 
Most  particularly  it  also  involves  help  to  our  neighbor,  no  matter 
what  his  faith  or  character,  in  special  time  of  need. 
2.     Intercourse. 

(a).  Formal.  This  involves  recognition  on  the  basis  of  a 
common  hwnamty  which  we  meet,  even  if  our  paths  cross,  and 
does  not  involve  either  recognition  or  endorsement  of  any  particti- 
lar  claims  advanced  by  our  neighbor. 

(b).  Infortnal.  This  involves  sympathy,  without  special  obli- 
gations, (but  to  be  felt  and  manifested  wherever  it  is  possible  so 
to  do. 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  263 

3.    Dealings 

Here  there  is  a  common  act,  usually  an  exchange  of  values, 
a  transaction  which  is  mutually  satisfactory,  which  is  complete 
and  final  in  itself,  and  entails  no  consequences  or  obligations  for 
the  future,  but  which  is  of  help  to  each,  that  is,  of  common  benefit 
to  both  parties.  It  does  not  commit  either  party  to  any  principle 
or  transaction  outside  of  that  involved  in  the  dealing.  Dealings 
may  lead  to  common,  unformulated  understandings,  and  to  many 
customs  of  helpfulness  which,  however,  neither  party  is  in  honor 
bound  to  continue  to  maintain,  but  each  party  is  free  to  break 
oflf  whenever  he  believes  or  finds  it  to  be  to  his  advantage  to  do 
so.  This  is  the  essence  of  business  relations,  and  is  well  under- 
stood and  universally  practiced  by  business  men  of  honor  without 
special  diflSculty  or  danger  of  being  involved  in  misunderstandings. 
4.     Covenants 

Covenants  are  a  mutual  agreement  extended  into  a  long  time 
future  in  virtue  of  which  each  party  agrees  to  be  and  to  act 
towards  the  other  as  is  stipulated  in  the  basal  articles  of  the 
understanding.  The  sanction  of  a  covenant  may  be  some  element 
of  force,  or  it  may  rest  upon  the  abiding  trust  in  the  integrity 
each  of  the  other. 

5.     Co-operation 

Co-operation  is  mutually  supporting  action  along  lines  of  policy 
of  which  each  party  approves,  and  the  goal  of  which  both  par- 
ties desire  to  see  attained.  The  co-operation  may  be  along  spe- 
cially and  mutually  agreed  on  and  understood  lines,  or  it  may  be 
of  a  more  general  character.  There  is  some  danger  in  a  general 
understanding  of  co-operation  in  that  one  or  the  other  party 
may  innocently  or  wilfully  presume  on  the  aid,  sympathy,  or  use 
of  the  name  and  good  will  of  the  other  without  the  full  consent 
of  the  other.  It  is  safe  to  exercise  care  in  arriving  at  an  under- 
standing and  in  sufficient  delimitation  before  committing  oneself 
to  general  co-operation. 

6.    Alliances 

Alliance  is  the  lining  up  of  the  forces  of  each  or  all  parties 
toward  specifically  mentioned  ends.  There  is  no  intention  here 
of  touching,  altering,  or  modifying  the  individualty  of  any  of 
the  participants,  but  the  agreement  is  to  engage  in  a  common 
undertaking  which,  without  compromising  anything  outside  of  that 


264  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

undertaking,  will  secure  common  action  toward  the  mutually 
desired  end.  Alliances  are  frequently  offensive  and  defensive. 
They  may  be  entered  into  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  or  de- 
stroying a  common  foe,  or  for  the  purpose  of  building  up  and 
constructing  a  common  good. 

7.  Union 

Union  is  a  permanent  and  general  alliance  on  all  the  greater 
matters  in  any  ^i^ere  of  activity,  which,  however,  will  take  suf- 
ficient care  to  continue  to  guard  the  individuality  of  each  of  the 
participants.  In  the  larger  matters  of  common  danger  and  some- 
times of  a  common  progress,  the  individual  will  have  to  yield 
certain  rights  to  the  whole ;  but  this  yielding  can  never  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  destroy  the  individuality  of  the  parts.  The  United 
States,  composed  of  many  individuals,  is  a  rich  illustration  of 
the  nature  of  union. 

8.  Fellowship 

Fellowship  involves  not  only  all  the  lower  and  preceding  stages 
just  mentioned,  but  the  propriety  and  willingness  of  each  indi- 
vidual to  give  over  his  full  self,  principles,  feelings  and  desires, 
to  the  other,  in  a  close  intimacy  of  association  which  practically 
identifies  the  one  with  the  other  in  the  public  eye,  and  which 
causes  each  individual  to  feel  and  say  of  the  other  "We  are 
one."  Fellowship,  by  its  very  nature,  and  if  the  right  of  self- 
determination  of  personalities  of  persons  and  peoples  ibe  granted, 
can  never  become  universal.  There  must  be  neighborliness,  there 
should  be  intercourse,  there  may  be  dealings  and  co-operation, 
there  may  be  covenants  and  alliances,  but  fellowship  is  of  the  inner 
and  the  soul-life  and  by  its  very  nature  partakes  of  the  more  per- 
sonal and  private  relationships.  A  limited  co-operation  is  just, 
but  fellowship,  by  reason  of  the  extent  of  the  identification  of 
each  with  the  other,  cannot  justly  be  regarded  as  necessarily 
universal. 

The  basis  of  fellowship  rests  on  brotherhood,  but  it  is  distin- 
guished from  ibrotherhood  in  that  it  is  a  conscious  appropriation 
and  exercise  of  the  latent  unities  that  exist  in  brotherhood  in 
the  joyous  knowledge  of  a  complete  harmony  and  identity  of 
trust.  It  has  potencies  of  brotherhood,  self-chosen,  mutually 
reciprocated,  and  carried  into  all  the  walks  of  inner  and  outer  life. 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS    AND    ISSUES  265 

9.     Unity 

Unity  is  indivisibleness.  It  is  a  oneness  of  constituent  parts 
running  through  and  binding  all  (however  diverse  in  quality) 
to  singleness  of  purpose,  plan  and  activity.  It  is  the  spontaneous 
and  yet  necessary  co-operation  of  all  the  members  on  the  basis 
of  a  fundamental  and  dominating  principle  which  results  not 
only  in  organic  harmony  of  existence,  but  in  a  s.ingleness  of  out- 
ward action.  Communion  is  a  conscious  and  happy  participation 
of  our  inner  life  in  unity. 

10.     Communion 

G>mmunion  is  more  than  union  and  more  than  fellowship.  It 
is  union  intensified  into  active  fellowship.  But  the  fellowship  is 
not  a  mere  subjective  participation  of  feelings,  taste  or  conviction 
in  the  common  life  of  another.  It  is  a  fellowship  arising  out  of 
an  objective  ground  provided  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  His 
redemption,  constituting  its  participants  into  a  special  brotherhood, 
into  which  they  are  called  by  the  Gospel.  In  it  they  are  taken 
up  into  the  brotherhood  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and  in  it  they 
participate  in  the  Holy  Communion  in  receiving  that  real  body. 
It  is  a  brotherhood,  not  of  feeling,  or  of  subjective  intellectual 
faith,  or  even  of  a  common  conviction,  but  it  is  a  brotherhood  in 
the  life  and  death  of  Christ  as  shared  out  to  us  in  His  Word 
and  in  the  communication  of  His  own  body,  which,  so  far  as  it 
is  a  visible  act,  becomes  a  distinguishing  mark  of  brotherhood. 

It  is  more  than  fellowship  because  it  is  not  a  fellowship  on  the 
ground  of  a  common  feeling  or  faith,  but  a  feeling  on  the  ground 
of  a  common  brotherhood  in  Christ  given  to  us  in  a  common 
Word,  and  renewed,  maintained  and  manifested  in  a  common 
participation  in  the  actual  body  of  Christ. 

Communion  is  union  intensified.  It  is  not  merely  an  occasional 
sharing  of  one's  self  or  one's  feelings  in  a  common  and  voluntary 
association  of  ibrotherhood,  but  it  is  an  identification  of  our 
whole  life  with  the  life  of  another  in  and  through  our  brotherhood 
in  Christ.  It  is  a  life  fellowship  on  the  basis  of  the  greatest  of 
life  realities.  In  Communion  we  give  to  and  receive  our  whole 
selves  from  another,  viz.,  Christ,  in  and  through  what  He  gives 
to  us,  and  on  this  ground  we  give  and  receive  ourselves  to  and 
from  each  other.  It  is  not  merely  a  sharing  of  life  convictions, 
not  a  mere  life  fellowship,  but  it  is  Christ  Himself,  drawing  us  as 


266  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

members  of  His  brotherhood,  into  the   fellowship  of  that  which 
He  offers  as  the  ground  of  our  unity  with  each  other. 

Hence  a  communion  is  a  body  of  persons  united  on  a  common 
principle,  viz.,  Christ,  and  in  fellowship  by  reason  of  community 
of  faith,  love,  hope,  and  all  other  spiritual  interests.  A  Com- 
munion in  the  Lutheran  sense,  is  a  body  of  believers  bound  to 
each  other  in  Christ,  that  is  in  the  common  bond  of  the  pure 
Word  and  Sacrament,  and  in  a  fellowship  in  the  same.  The 
supreme  act  and  visible  proof  and  test  of  this  fellowship  is  a 
common  participation  in  the  fruits  of  Christ's  atoning  redemption 
as  offered  and  received  in  the  real  body  of  Christ  in  the  Lord's 
Supper.  A  Communion  is  a  special  type  of  brotherhood  united 
in  the  fraternal  bonds  that  issue  from  their  common  origin  and 
that  exercise  themselves  in  common  forms  under  the  impetus  of 
their  unity. 

THE    COMMON    GROUND 

(1)  Many  devoted  and  sincere  Christians  that  we  know  are 
not  Lutherans ;  and  many  more  have  never  heard  of  Lutheranism. 
There  are  two  extremes  in  dealing  with  these  multitudes.  The 
one  extreme  will  have  nothing  whatever  of  any  kind  to  do  with 
them,  will  make  no  attempt  to  recognize  or  to  co-operate  even 
with  that  which  is  common;  the  other  extreme  will  extend  the 
hand  of  most  intimate  fellowship  and  take  into  its  bosom  person- 
alities who  are  exponents  of  principles  which  are  radically 
divergent  from  those  on  which  their  own  faith  and  life  is  founded. 

(2)  There  is  a  common  ground  for  all  Christians  in  Christ. 
Those  whom  Christ  recognizes,  despite  their  errors  and  imper- 
fections, are  already  one  with  us  in  Christ.  They  may  not  be  one 
with  us  in  mind  and  faith,  they  may  not  be  one  with  us  in  those 
particular  parts  of  our  mind  and  faith  which  we  feel  divinely 
called  to  stand  for  and  exposit,  and  hence  we  may  be  unalble  to 
feel  and  say  that  they  are  in  a  common  brotherhood  of  faith 
because  we  earnestly  believe  that,  although  Christ  can  receive 
them  as  they  are  unto  Himself  without  danger  to  His  truth  we 
cannot  do  so  with  the  same  safety.  Christ  can  do  all  things. 
We  must  do  in  accordance  with  our  convictions. 

(3)  Nevertheless  there  is  some  actual  agreement  of  all 
Christians. 

(4)  There  is  also  much  disagreement  among  Christians.     This 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  267 

is  a  necessary  consequence  of  Protestantism.  If  the  self-deter- 
mining rights  of  a  people  or  a  personality  be  conceded,  we  are 
thereby  and  in  that  act  setting  up  a  standard  of  individuality. 

(5)  The  differences  of  Christians,  despite  the  self-determined 
right  of  individual  Christians,  are  not  pleasing  to  God.  God  wants 
every  man  to  have  his  own  honest  conviction.  Yet  as  a  matter 
of  fact  the  sum  of  convictions  do  not  agree  and  they  introduce 
schism.  Just  how  to  bring  harmony  of  conviction  on  the  one  truth 
is  the  problem  of  the  ages. 

(6)  External  union  of  Christians  will  not  bring  about  that 
harmony.  It  will  simply  transfer  the  points  of  divisiveness  to  a 
place  within  the  common  circle.  These  points  may  then,  indeed, 
through  closer  association  be  resolved  into  unity.  This  unity  will 
be  the  unity  of  the  most  persistent  wearing  down  of  those  who 
are  more  retiring  and  yielding.  The  Lutheran  Church  has  suffered 
tremendously  from  such  unities  with  other  Protestants,  particularly 
the  more  assertive  and  strident  kind.  Or,  if  they  are  exceeding 
keen  and  fundamental  in  the  minds  of  those  who  hold  them, 
they  will  lead  to  internal  disunity  and  to  final  rupture.  Hence  the 
safe  way  of  unifying  Christianity  is  to  gain  internal  union  of 
principle  which  can  then  properly  be  expressed  in  an  external 
union  of  organization. 

(7)  The  real  union  of  Christians  is  a  joining  of  the  same  mind 
in  the  same  faith,  and  a  fellowship  in  the  life  and  work  of  the 
church. 

(8)  There  is  now  no  such  union,  but  there  are  some  principles 
of  Christianity  common  to  all  Christians.  To  suppress,  or  to 
ignore  these  common  principles  is  to  go  ibeyond  what  our  Lord 
has  intended  in  the  matter  of  divisiveness.  The  common  ground, 
if  it  be  sufficient,  and  if  it  can  be  de-limited  from  that  which  is 
not  common,  so  as  to  avoid  all  misunderstandings,  is  to  be  used 
as  a  basis  in  limited  co-operation.  But  as  there  is  a  living  vitality 
in  faith,  and  it  is  a  vitally  connected  organism,  a  common  ground 
abstracted  by  theory,  as  a  partial  entity,  is  a  dangerous  basis  for 
co-operation  or  fellowship,  without  clear  and  strong  safeguards. 

OF  CO-OPERATION 

(1)  There  is  a  co-operation  that  affects  doctrine  as  well  as 
practice,  and  as  doctrine  or  principle  is  precious  in  the  sight  of 
Lutherans,   and   its    preservation    a   matter   of   great    importance, 


268  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

the  kind  of  co-operation  here  referred  to  must  be  decided  on  the 
basis  of  doctrine. 

(2)  There  is  a  co-operation  that  affects  practice.  Where  such 
co-operation  does  not  involve  the  implication  of  a  common  doc- 
trine, or  where  the  common  doctrine  involved  is  held  mutually 
by  all  participants,  the  problem  of  co-operation  can  readily  be 
solved. 

(3)  Co-operation  must  be:  (a)  Orderly;  (b)  Consistent;  (c) 
Avoiding  internal  weaknesses.  If  in  a  single  transaction,  it  may 
ibe  of  the  nature  of  business  dealing.  If  in  a  continuous  line  of 
policy,  it  may  be  secured  by  a  covenant  relationship. 

(4)  The  importance,  worthiness,  or  goodness  of  an  object  is 
not  the  sole  determining  factor  in  considering  the  advisability  of 
co-operation.     The  method  of  co-operation  also  is  important. 

(5)  The  method  of  participating  in  co-operation,  or  of  abstain- 
ing from  it,  may  condemn  the  participation,  or  the  abstinence. 

(6)  A  good  Object  with  a  bad  Method  will  probably  develop 
bad  features,  and  may  bring  on  bad  results. 

(7)  It  is  easier  to  oppose  co-operation  in  the  bad  that  is  all 
ibad,  than  to  oppose  co-operation  in  the  good  that  is  mingled  with 
some  bad.  Nevertheless,  because  of  the  delusiveness  to  many 
people  who  do  not  see  the  bad  wrapped  up  in  the  heart  of  the 
good,  to  oppose  a  good  mingled  with  bad  may  be  as  important 
as  to  oppose  the  totally  bad. 

(8)  Much  good  may  be  accomplished  in  this  world  by  imper- 
fect efforts,  or  even  efforts  mingled  with  evil  principles,  in  any 
earnest  endeavor  to  overcome  Satan  and  the  power  of  darkness. 
And  even  where  the  Church  be  unable  to  associate  itself  with 
others  "because  of  their  erroneous  principles"  in  these  efforts, 
yet,  since  there  is  so  much  sin  in  the  world,  and  so  much  to  be 
done  for  Christ's  sake,  the  Church  should  not  decry  this  good, 
nor  waste  her  money  and  mayhap  ruin  her  spirit  of  love  by 
attacking  these  methods  which  she  cannot  approve.  If,  however, 
these  efforts  set  themselves  up  in  her  own  midst,  as  perfections, 
and  as  something  better  and  higher  than  the  efforts  in  which  she 
trusts,  in  her  own  defence,  in  order  to  preserve  her  own  in- 
tegrity and  consistency,  the  Church's  warning  must  be  clear, 
strong,  and  in  no  uncertain  tone.  The  more  stern,  and  frank, 
and  bold  her  defence  of  her  own  is,  and  the  more  clear  her  rebuke 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  269 

of    unjustifiable    presumption,    at    the    start,    the    more    kind    and 
charitable  will  the  action  really  be  in  the  end. 

OF   IMPROPER   AND   PROPER    PARTICIPATION 

(1)  Effective  co-operation  is  not  by  one  part  or  one  individual 
acting  independently  of  his  Communion,  who  ignores  the  church 
that  is  behind  him.  A  fundamental  American  principle  is  that 
a  representative  does  not  represent  unless  he  is  appointed.  Indi- 
vidual co-operation,  even  where  it  is  right  and  lawful,  and  where 
the  communion's  failure  to  join  in  is  wrong,  is  attempting  unity 
without  introducing  disloyalty  and  disunity  within.  The  common  tie 
binds  the  individual,  so  long  as  he  remains  within,  on  points  on 
which  the  communion  as  a  whole  has  taken  a  position.  Disloyalty 
is  a  primal  crime.  The  first  duty  of  such  an  individual  is  to 
get  the  communion  to  see  its  wrong  position.  If  he  cannot  do  so, 
it  becomes  a  matter  of  conscience  with  him  as  to  whether  he  can, 
with  his  convictions,  abide  in  the  communion.  For  divisiveness 
caused  by  genuine  conscience,  he  is  entitled  to  honoralble  separa- 
tion. If  his  conscience  continues  to  permit  him  to  act  divisively 
and  disloyally  to  his  brotherhood,  the  brotherhood  must  make 
its  position  clear  by  testimony  or  by  action. 

(2)  A  church,  if  it  has  a  right  to  exist,  has  a  right  to  stand  for 
something,  and  be  heard  on  the  subject  of  co-operation,  before 
being  committed  to  it.  It  has  a  right  to  appoint  its  representa- 
tives, and  to  expect  them  to  represent  it,  rather  than     themselves. 

(3)  True  co-operation  begins  at  home,  and  wins  the  nearest 
to  itself. 

(4)  A  part  of  a  church  has  rights  of  its  own,  when  in  a 
minority.     It  also  respects  the  rights  of  others. 

(5)  Where  there  is  a  community  of  brotherhood,  fellowship  and 
rights,  true  co-operation  will  precede  action  by  consultation. 

(6)  When  a  part  of  a  church  bears  the  honor  of  a  common 
name,  it  will  respect  the  common  character  for  which  it  stands. 

PRINCIPLES    PARTICULARLY    APPLICABLE    TO    THE    LUTHERAN    CHURCH 

(1)  Christianity  is  wider  than  Lutheranism. 

(2)  Christianity   is   wider   than   inter-denominationalism. 

(3)  Christianity   is  wider  than  Protestantism. 

(4)  Protestantism  (and  inter-denominationalism)  has  its  dan- 
gers as  well  as  Catholicism. 


270  THEODORE    EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

(5)  A  broad  and  consistent  co-operation  must  be  prepared  to 
take  in  the  good  zuhcrever  found,  whenever  it  can  be  done  safely. 

(6)  There  are  upright  men  outside  of  the  Church. 

(7)  Christians  must  be  broad  enough  to  co-operate  (under  5) 
with  such  men  whether  in  the  Church  or  out  of  it.  This  point 
is  an  issue  today. 

(8)  The  Lutheran  Church  is  broad  enough  to  do  this. 

(9)  The  real  principle  of  the  Lutheran  Church  is  the  broadest 
possible;  and  there  is  no  more  liberal  principle  in  any  church 
of  deep  and  live  convictions. 

(10)  The  principle  is  to  support  and  co-operate  with  all  good, 
wherever  it  may  be,  whenever  possible.  The  rule  is  made  prac- 
tical by  making  clear  to  all  that  this  is  not  a  unity  of  brotherhood, 
not  a  fellowship  in  brotherhood,  but  a  common  act  of  two  entities, 
for  a  purpose  common  in  both;  and  by  then  defining  the  nature, 
prescribing  the  just  limits,  making  clear  the  purpose,  and  keeping 
clean  and  true  the  means  and  methods  of  the  cooperation. 

(11)  The  principle  is  sufficient  to  guide  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  its  relations  to  all  forms  of  association,  civil  or  religious, 
among  men  for  the  upbuilding  of  the  good,  the  suppression  of 
vice,  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  the  development  of  character. 
But  every  claim  must  be  tested  on  its  own  merits. 

SOME    BROAD    LIMITATIONS    TO    CO-OPERATION 

(1)  Prudence,  until  a  test  as  to  the  righteousness  and  feasi- 
bility of  common  action  has  become  satisfactory,  is  an  ordinary 
business  principle. 

(2)  Refusal  to  co-operate  is  not  condemnation.  There  may  be 
reasons  why  my  neighbor's  business,  without  any  reflection  on 
him,  should  ibe  kept  entirely  separate  from  my  own.  He  realizes 
that,  and  respects  me  for  attending  strictly  to  my  own  affairs ; 
and  Christian  business  men  must  be  made  to  realize  that  religion 
is  at  least  as  serious  a  thing  as  business. 

(3)  There  is  a  limit  of  human  ability  somewhere  and  at  some 
time  to  co-operation  toward  that  without.  Neither  nature  nor 
grace  confers  unlimited  energy  on  man.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  an  unlimited  stewardship  or  trust. 

(4)  Since  co-operation  with  those  outside  of  communion  and 
fellowship  is  necessarily  selective,  refusal  is  not  an  indication  of 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  271 

bigotry    or    narrowness.      Dr.    Trumbull    has    emphasized    "The 
Duty  of  Refusing  to  do  Good." 

(5)  Specific  religious  work  may  be  more  effective  without  co- 
operation,   for  the   following   reasons : 

(a)  Consolidated  effort,  especially  of  a  loosely  jointed  char- 
acter, has  its  disadvantages  and  evils.  The  family  is  often  better 
off,  as  a  training  institution,  under  its  own  vine  and  fig  tree, 
than  when  joined  with  many  others  on  the  flat  of  a  modern 
apartment  house.    The  same  is  true  of  the  Church  and  the  school. 

(b)  Large  voluntary  concerns,  if  not  compactly  organized, 
are  as  a  rule  less  manageable,  and  more  consumptive  of  energy, 
than  small  ones.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  conserve  its 
energy,  and  use  it  with  the  least  waste,  though  this  often  prevent 
a  branching'  out  into  co-operative  endeavor. 

(c)  A  decision  once  introduced,  and  very  largely  used,  through- 
out the  Church,  especially  if  it  be  sound,  is  to  be  respected. 

(d)  The  Lutheran  Church  has  introduced  and  established  a 
fundamental  precedent  in  co-operation:  in  working  against  the 
co-operation  of  its  young  people  under  Christian  Endeavor,  and 
for  co-operation  of  its  young  people  under  Luther  League. 

(e)  It  a  second  time  estalblished  this  principle,  this  time  in  the 
sphere  of  Sunday  School  work,  in  uniting  four  general  bodies 
(General  Synod,  General  Council,  United  Synod  South,  Joint 
Synod  of  Ohio)  on  common  Lutheran  picture  charts  (in  place  of 
International  charts  existing). 

(f)  It  has  a  third  time  established  this  precedent  in  the  co- 
operation of  two  general  bodies  in  the  founding  of  a  Lutheran 
Sunday  Scliool  paper  (in  place  of  inter-denominational  papers). 
The  common  liturgical  work,  and  common  co-operation  in  mission 
work,  between  several  of  these  bodies,  duly  authorized,  are  pre- 
cedents in  the  same  line. 

(g)  On  the  other  hand,  there  has  never  been  established  in  a 
vital  and  organic  or  other  than  in  a  sporadic  way  a  duly  author- 
ized precedent  in  the  opposite  direction. 

(6)  Co-operation  is  a  mutual  affair;  and  is  based  on  the 
common  consent  of  both  parties,  not  of  one  only. 

(7)  Co-operation,  especially  if  it  be  inter-denominational,  is 
of  general  body  with  general  body;  not  of  a  general  body  on  one 
side  and  a  party  or  some  individuals  on  the  other. 


272  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

(8)  An  organization  of  individuals,  each  not  authorized  to 
represent  a  denomination,  is  not  inter-denominational  co-operation. 

(9)  Inter-denominational  co-operation  does  not  carry  with  it 
the  right  of  a  general  organization  to  enter  a  denomination  by- 
circular,  letter,  or  in  person,  without  consultation  or  permission 
of  this  denominational  general  organization;  nor  to  give  said 
denomination  advice,  instruction,  or  even  "direct  calls  from  God" 
which  are  at  variance  with  the  belief  or  practice  of  the  said 
denominational  general  organization. 

(10)  It  is  not  inter-denominational  co-operation  for  a  general 
inter-denominational  organization  to  intermingle  its  activities  in 
a  specific  denominational  field,  with  that  of  a  general  denomina- 
tional organization,  without  previous  consultation  and  common 
action  with  the  general  denominational  organization  of  which  the 
congregation  is  a  part. 

(11)  It  is  not  true  co-operation  for  the  outside  co-operator 
to  bring  on  a  conflict  of  authority  in  any  internal  field. 

(12)  It  is  not  true  co-operation  for  any  individual,  without 
authorization  and  the  consent  of  the  Church,  to  represent  a 
national  or  state  movement  in  behalf  of  a  church,  to  which  move- 
ment a  large  part  of  the  church  is  opposed. 

(13)  It  is  not  true  co-operation  for  an  individual,  to  represent 
in  a  general  ecclesiastical  field  or  in  a  denominational  field  both 
the  general  and  the  denominational  work,  when  the  denominational 
body  through  its  regular  representative  withholds  approval  of 
the  same.  A  church  in  its  own  field  should  have  but  one  general 
policy,  consistent  and  not  self-conflicting. 

(14)  This  policy  if  it  is  to  be  carried  out  by  an  individual, 
should  be  determined  before  it  is  executed,  and  determined  through 
the  regular  ecclesiastical  channels.  No  ecclesiastical  institution 
is  strong  enough  to  long  endure  a  divided  policy  in  its  manage- 
ment, without  great  injury;  and  anything  that  would  impair  its 
respect  before  itself  and  others,  in  a  single  line  of  irregular  con- 
flict, will  gradually  extend  to  all  lines.  A  church  that  knows  not 
its  own  mind  on  a  question  of  general  policy  is  like  a  house 
divided  against  itself. 

(15)  It  is  not  true  co-operation  for  an  individual  to  represent 
both  the  inter-denominational  and  the  denominational  work,  when 


ON    LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  273 

the  denominational  body  through  its  regular  representatives  with- 
holds approval  of  the  same. 

SOME   MOVEMENTS    WITH    WHICH   LUTHERANS   IN    AMERICA    CAN 
CO-OPERATE   ON    THE   BASIS    OF    CIVIL   RIGHTEOUSNESS 

(1)  For  the  suppression  of  vice. 

(2)  For  good  laws. 

(3)  For  the  furtherance  of  patriotism. 

(4)  For  the  poor,  weak  and  criminal  classes. 

(5)  For   schools,   universities   and   professional   institutes. 

(6)  For  scientific  study  of  the  truth,  including  ecclesiastical 
topics  and  the  Scriptures. 

SOME    MOVEMENTS    WITH    WHICH    LUTHERANS    IN    AMERICA   CAN 
CO-OPERATE  ON   THE  BASIS  OF  A   COMMON   CHRISTIANITY 

(1)  The  maintenance  of  a  Christian  spirit  in  business,  social 
and  educational  life. 

(2)  The  upholding  of  the  principles  of  Christianity  in  the 
common  law  of  our  land. 

(3)  The  translation  of  the  Scriptures. 

(4)  The  common  use  of  hymns,  books  of  devotion,  and  Litera- 
ture from  which  Lutheran  principles  are  not  bleached  out;  or 
un-Lutheran  principles   printed  in. 

(5)  The   proper  use  of   unobjectionable  parts  of  the  above. 

(6)  Common  institutions  like  the  American  Bible  Society.  But 
not  the  unconditional  support  of  common  institutions  like  the 
American  Tract  Society,  or  the  American  Sunday  School  Union, 
or  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  or  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  The 
support  of  specific  portions  of  such  work  might  Ibe  accomplished 
if  it  can  be  combined  with  the  most  positive  testimony  and  action 
against  unevangelical  parts  of  its  work. 

(7)  In  each  of  these  cases,  the  movement  is  to  be  tested  by  the 
principles  and  actions  laid  down  above. 

SOME    REASONS    WHY    THE    ORGANIZED     INTER-DENOMINATIONAL 

TEACHING  AND  PREACHING   OF  THE  GOSPEL  IN   CHURCH   AND 

SCHOOL   IS    NOT   POSSIBLE  TO  LUTHERANS    IN    AMERICA 

(1)  Because  Lutherans  believe  we  are  saved  by  faith  alone; 
whereas  many  persons  in  Christian  churches  today  believe  and 
practically  teach  that  works  have  a  good  deal  to  do  with  salva- 
tion. 

S 


274  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

(2)  Because  the  Lutheran  Church,  the  Mother  of  Protestantism, 
takes  her  stand  only  on  differences  of  vital  principle;  whereas 
many  Protestants  divide  from  each  other  on  grounds  of  customs, 
modes  of  administering  ordinances,  and  method  of  church  govern- 
ment; while  they  may  undervalue  the  great  things  of  inner 
principle. 

(3)  Because  Lutherans  believe  in  a  square,  open,  broad,  deep 
life,  rather  than  in  one  which  is  ecclesiastically  diplomatic,  which 
is  courteous  on  the  surface,  and  of  an  appropriative  spirit  beneath 
the  surface. 

(4)  Because  the  great  and  crucial  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the 
Word  and  the  Sacraments  is  not  generally  acknowledged  and 
solely    (or  even  partially)    used  in  many  Evangelical  movements. 

(5)  Because  Lutherans  do  not  believe  in  prayer  as  a  means 
of  grace,  or  in  many  other  human  "means  of  grace"  on  which 
many  inter-denominational  movements  rely. 

THE    HISTORIC    PRECEDENTS    AGAINST   THE   ORGANIZED   INTER- 
DENOMINATIONAL   TEACHING    OF    THE    GOSPEL 

(1)  For  Lutherans,  Martin  Luther  is  not  a  bad  authority  on 
this  point. 

(2)  In  America,  prior  to  Muhlenberg,  the  pious  Justus  Falckner 
in  New  York,  the  Rev.  Berkenmeyer,  and  the  Rev.  John  Caspar 
Stoever,  are  examples  to  the  Church.  The  fate  of  the  Old 
Swedes  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  and  its  total  absorption  into 
another  denomination,  points  to  what  would  have  occurred  in  early 
American  Lutheranism,  if  an  inter-denominational  co-operation 
had  prevailed. 

(3)  Muhlenberg  from  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  America  to 
the  day  of  his  death,  was  opposed  to  inter-denominational  co- 
operation.    [He  remarks  that  "this  point  needs  explanation."] 

(4)  The  period  when  plans  for  denominational  union  were 
most  strongly  broached  was  the  most  critical  period  of  the  Luth- 
eran Church  in  the  East.  Had  they  been  adopted,  the  Lutheran 
faith  would  have  been  eclipsed. 

(5)  The  historic  American  Synods,  under  great  temptation, 
neither  united  with  the  Reformed  Church,  nor  established  what 
might  have  become  the  first  and  original  Northfield  in  this  country, 
and  have  shed  its  influences  of  Christianity  throughout  the  land, 
two-thirds  of  a  century  earlier  than  any  of  its  successors. 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  275 

This  principle  and  its  proper  settlement  involves  the  very  life 
of  the  United  Lutheran  Church.  As  was  said  twenty  years  ago: 
"If  our  dear  Church  is  to  have  any  future  before  her,  she  cannot 
give  up  this  principle.     In  doing  so,  she  would  give  up  herself." 


TWO  GREAT  LESSONS  OF  PROVIDENCE 
Providence  has  been  teaching  us  anew  and  with  compelling 
force  the  two  great  lessons  of  universality  and  individuality.  St. 
Paul  in  his  day  declared  that  God  made  of  one  blood  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  And  in  these  latter  days,  when  the  whole 
world  is  connected  up  closely  in  air,  sea,  and  land  to  such  an 
extent  that  national  isolation,  withdrawal,  seclusion,  or  retreat. 
from  all  others  has  become  impossible,  and  when  the  great  powers 
of  the  world  have  come  to  the  sober  conclusion  that  a  world 
society  of  nations  is  inevitable,  the  lessons  of  providence  to  all 
mankind  and  to  the  Church  itself  are  too  plain  to  need  explica- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  by  the  very  fact  that  a  withdrawal 
from  world  activities  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  physically 
possible  or  morally  right,  it  becomes  all  the  more  necessary  to 
erect  some  barriers  against  a  pitiless  publicity  and  unwarranted 
intrusion  into  the  just  privacy  to  which  every  individual  entity 
is  justly  entitled.  The  two  principles  at  stake  are  first  that  man 
must  share  a  common  public  life  with  all  his  fellows;  and  that 
man  is  entitled  all  the  more  because  of  the  universal  publicity  to 
certain  rights  for  the  development  and  exercise  of  his  oitm  indi- 
viduality. In  national  affairs  these  two  lessons  may  be  phrased 
as  follows :  First,  the  good  will  and  welfare  of  all  must  be 
contributed  to  by  each ;  and  secondly,  the  peculiar  right  of  a  people, 
no  matter  how  small,  if  it  be  truly  an  individual  nationality  is 
entitled  to  its  own  self-determination.  To  put  it  briefly,  the  les- 
sons are :  a  stronger  and  more  intimate  participation  by  each  in 
the  affairs  of  all,  and  a  guarding  of  the  rights  of  even  the  weakest 
in  those  things  in  which  they  are  entitled  to  be  left  alone. 

(1)  The  Lutheran  Church  should  do  all  in  her  power  to  edu- 
cate her  pastors  and  people  in  the  two  great  lessons  which  Provi- 
dence is  enforcing  on  us  at  this  moment,  viz.,  the  universality  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  the  Communion  of  Saints;  and  the  strong 
individuality  of  our  own  Lutheran  Communion.  She  should  make 
clear   the  grounds,   internal  and   fundamental,  on  which   the  uni- 


276  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

versality  of  Christ's  Church  is  founded;  and  make  equally  clear 
the  ground  on  which  solely  the  Lutheran  Church  is  entitled  to  her 
own  individual  existence,  under  the  conviction  that  her  principle 
best  represents  the  universality  of  the  Church. 

Lutheran  pastors  and  people,  and  the  whole  Christian  world 
outside  of  us,  should  also  be  educated  to  an  appreciation  of  our 
right  to  individuality,  by  being  caused  to  clearly  understand  it ; 
and  of  our  principle  of  co-operation. 

(2)  That  principle  is  as  follows :  Toward  the  Christians  and 
Christian  communions  without  us,  we  are  to  show  neighborliness, 
to  have  intercourse  and  sympathy  to  the  extent  of  our  common 
Christianity,  provided  that  this  involve  no  special  obligations, 
recognition  or  endorsement  beyond  what  is  actually  in  common. 
We  may  have  dealings  mutually  advantageous  of  a  common  busi- 
ness character.  We  may  enter  into  covenants  on  basal  articles 
which  in  no  wise  compromise  each  other.  We  may  enter  into  co- 
operation on  lines  of  common  policy  provided  that  those  with 
whom  we  co-operate  formally,  officially  and  practically  recognize 
the  bounds  and  limits,  and  that  our  own  people  are  clearly  taught 
them. 

We  may  enter  into  union  with  those  with  whom  we  are  in 
the  inner  unity  of  fellowship  and  communion.  This  fellowship  and 
communion  is  not  a  matter  of  our  own  determination,  or  of  our 
feelings  or  tastes,  but  is  a  fact  in  Christ.  It  is  determined  Iby  a 
common  participation  in  His  pure  Word  and  Sacraments  which 
constitute  our  brotherhood  in  Him. 

We  cannot  unite  in  a  supreme  act  of  communion  and  fellow- 
ship which  is  not  founded  on  the  supreme  and  most  real  though 
most  mysterious  offer  to  us  of  Christ's  organic  body  and  His 
complete  redemption.  Commimion  and  Fellowship  are  not  marks 
of  universality,  or  extension,  but  they  are  marks  of  the  intimate 
sharing  of  inner  life.  They  are  not  the  broad  basis  but  the 
personal  and  select  culmination  of  inner  fellowship.  We  have 
many  brethren  in  Christ,  but  the  Sacrament  is  the  mark  of  special, 
complete,  organic  and  perfect  brotherhood,  and  not  that  of  an 
external  or  any  general  brotherhood  founded  on  sentiment  or 
on  human  association. 

(3)  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Lutheran  Church  to  teach  her  pastors 
and  people  that  fellowship  implies  life  loyalty,  is  the  sacred  and 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  211 

intimate  act  of  brotherhood  which  only  arises  between  those  who 
are  spiritually  at  one,  that  it  requires  exclusive  and  life- long 
loyalty ;  and  that  it  consequently  does  not  admit  of  other 
fellowships  whose  principles,  purposes  and  practices  are 
based  on  a  different  view  of  this  life,  or  of  eternal 
life,  or  of  the  grace  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Hence 
fellowships  that  are  outside  of  the  Qiurch  of  Christ,  and  yet 
require  a  life  loyalty,  except  those  specifically  recognized  by  our 
Lord,  viz.,  in  the  case  of  the  family  and  of  the  state,  are  a 
partial  surrender  of  our  life  loyalty  to  Him,  and  hence  should 
not  be  entered  into.  There  is  only  one  divine  fellowship  for  the 
Christian,  and  that  is  in  Christ.  Fellowships  demanding  life  loy- 
alty as  offered  iby  human  associations  in  life  membership  in  human 
organizations  and  fraternities,  whatever  be  their  good  or  their 
bad  teachings,  are  at  variance  with  our  complete  and  absolute 
surrender,  and  our  perfect  incorporation  into  the  body  of  our 
Lord.  Minister  and  people  alike  should  say,  "I  am  determined 
to  know  nothing  but  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  "That  I 
should  preach  among  the  Gentiles  the  unsearchable  riches  of 
Christ;  and  to  make  all  men  see  what  is  the  fellowship  of  the 
mystery,  which  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  hath  been  hid 
in  God,  Who  created  all  things  by  Jesus  Christ"  (Eph.  4:9,  10). 

Hence  "our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ"  (John  3:3). 

"That  we  may  be  found  in  Him,  not  having  our  own  righteous- 
ness, but  that  which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  righteous- 
ness which  is  of  God  by  faith;  that  we  may  know  Him,  and  the 
power  of  His  resurrection,  and  the  fellowship  of  His  suffering" 
(Phil.  3:9,  10). 

"God  is  faithful  by  Whom  we  were  called  by  fellowship  of  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Now  I  ibeseech  you,  brethren,  by  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  ye  all  speak  the  same  thing, 
and  that  there  be  no  divisions  among  you;  but  that  ye  be  per- 
fectly joined  together  in  the  same  mind  and  in  the  same  judgment" 
(1  Cor.  1:10,  11). 


THE  CHURCH  AND   SOCIAL  PROBLEMS 
(From  a  letter  dated  Jutie  l6,  1915) 
It  is  exceptionally  important  for  the  Lutheran  Church  to  stand 


278  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

for  the  true  conception  of  the  duty  and  work  of  the  Church  in 
the  present  day,  when,  under  the  influence  of  scientific  social  ideas, 
and  the  weakening  of  all  doctrinal  principle,  including  particu- 
larly the  facts  of  divine  grace,  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
through  the  Word  alone,  the  atonement,  justification  by  faith 
alone,  and  similar  fundamental  spiritual  truths,  the  tendency  is 
to  make  of  the  Church  a  social  community,  almost  identical  with  a 
perfect  civic  community,  and  to  load  upon  it  all  the  moral  respon- 
sibilities of  civic  life. 

The  historical  and  social  philosophy  of  our  colleges  interprets 
Christianity  as  valuable  only  when  it  serves  the  community.  Its 
chief  activities  are  regarded  as  being  philanthropic.  Its  great 
olbject  is  the  creation  of  a  new  and  better  human  race  on  earth, 
and  a  great  human  brotherhood,  into  which  all  the  better  elements 
of  every  community  are  to  be  gathered  irrespective  of  denomina- 
tional faith. 

The  real  aim  of  the  Church,  according  to  this  view,  degenerates 
into  social  and  political  betterment,  and  into  civic  righteousness. 
The  individual,  with  his  immortal  life,  is  depressed  for  the  benefit 
of  the  common  social  state,  and  the  Church's  chief  use  and  end 
is  found  in  the  local  uplift  it  gives  to  every  specific  locality,  and 
to  the  higher  grade  of  state  and  national  issues. 

This  is  an  interpretation  completely  in  harmony  with  the  new 
science  of  social  economy,  represented  especially  Iby  the  two 
socialistic  writers,  Prof.  Rauschenbusch  of  Rochester,  and  Prof. 
Vedder  of  Crozer.  To  them  Christ  is  the  representative  of  a 
purely  social  religion,  and  Christianity's  chief  duty  today  is  to 
help  in  abolishing  red  light  districts,  eliminating  tuberculosis, 
furthering  eugenics,  forbidding  child  labor,  introducing  pure  drug 
laws,  eliminating  corruption  from  politics,  and  preventing  men 
from  becoming  drunkards.  The  welfare  of  society  is  the  funda- 
mental conditioning  factor  of  the  Church's  present  outlook  and 
duty. 

But  while  much  can  be  gathered  from  Scripture  to  support 
this  teaching.  Scripture  itself,  interpreted  as  a  whole,  by  no  means 
supports  it.  In  Scripture  the  spiritual  and  not  the  social  life  is 
supreme. 

Christianity  even  as  far  as  it  is  social,  does  not  find  its  great 
motive  in  economic  or  external  moral  interests.     There  is  a  great 


ON   LIVE   QUESTIONS   AND   ISSUES  279 

difference  ibetween  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and  the 
preaching  of  Jesus  in  this  respect.  The  Apostle  Paul's  treatment 
of  Onesimus,  whom  he  sent  back  to  Philemon,  shows  how  social 
questions  are  to  be  dealt  with.  Paul  had  no  social  program  for 
changing  human  society  by  the  prohibition  of  slavery.  He  over- 
came the  evil  of  slavery  in  this  case  through  the  power  of  spir- 
itual brotherhood,  and  not  through  the  law.  The  abolition  of 
slavery  was  an  effect  of  Christianity,  but  not  its  aim. 

The  social  results  of  Christianity  are  the  result  of  its  religious 
powers,  and  the  Church  exists  to  maintain,  sustain,  and  propagate 
its  religious  powers.  Christianity  does  not  seek  to  change  society 
first,  and  thus  remove  sin  by  the  pressure  of  social  environment. 
Christianity  seeks  to  eliminate  sin  through  justification  and  re- 
generation, and  thus  to  reform  society  by  the  new  and  inner  life 
of  the  individual. 

In  other  words,  Christianity  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  are  a 
new  society  or  communion  of  a  spiritual  order.  And  this  spiritual 
order  is  the  main  thing.  To  make  the  spiritual  order  culminate 
in  an  external  civic  order  is  the  mistake  of  our  age.  It  leads  to 
an  emphasis  on  the  externals  of  life,  and  this  leads  to  an  elimi- 
nation of  the  chief  mission  of  Jesus  Christ. 

{From  a  letter  in  reply  to  one  from  Prof.  Walter  Rauschen- 
bxisch)  : 

We  do  believe  in  a  vigorous  and  thorough  treatment  of  social 
questions  (by  Christians  in  the  State,  but  we  believe  that  this 
work  should  be  done  by  them  as  citizens,  and  not  as  Christians.  We 
do  not  believe  it  to  be  the  province  of  the  Church  to  enter  as  a 
Church  upon  the  problems  of  society  or  of  the  body  politic.  We 
believe  in  the  old-fashioned  doctrine,  which  is  good  also  for 
America,  of  the  complete  separation  of  the  functions  of  Church 
and  State,  and  in  the  training  of  the  people  in  the  Church  to 
such  a  point  of  principle  and  of  conscience  as  that  they  will 
carry  their  Christianity  into  the  State.  We  believe  that  the 
organization  of  the  Church  for  the  passage  of  society  measures 
bears  many  evils  in  its  train,  not  the  least  of  which  ultimately  is 
the  Roman  principle  of  the  right  of  the  spiritual  power  to  rule 
legally  over  society. 


280  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

ON  CHRISTMAS 
There  is  no  religion,  but  one,  with  a  festival  whose  center  is 
child-life.  Christmas  is  always  fresh.  The  world  grows  old, 
but  Christmas  never.  The  world  weaves  around  itself  an  annual 
shell  of  selfishness.  Christmas  comes  to  shatter  it.  Glory,  peace, 
good-will  is  the  song  of  the  season. 


THE   TRICKY   CONTROVERSIALIST 

In  controversy,  the  victory  is  not  always  to  the  deserving.  There 
are  antagonists  which  a  noble  and  fair  mind  can  not  afford  to 
engage.  An  unscrupulous  and  mean-minded  combatant  will  al- 
ways be  seeking  and  seizing  small  advantages,  evading  direct 
issues,  and  gliding  away  under  cover  of  personalities.  He  will 
be  venturesomely  wicked  in  the  unblushing  use  of  mendacious 
sarcasm,  knowing  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  noble  man  to  stoop 
to  similar  retort.  He  will  carry  the  issue  away  from  the  main 
question,  to  a  very  unexpected  and  perhaps  a  personal  quarter. 
The  tricky  contestant  can  have  the  truthful-minded  man  completely 
at  his  mercy.  It  will  be  impossible  to  explain  and  unravel  all 
his  interposed  innuendoes,  without  becoming  so  tedious  and  dif- 
fuse that  the  public  will  no  longer  be  willing  to  listen.  The  more 
indignant  you  wax  the  more  assiduously  will  he  continue  the 
worriment.  It  is  the  old  story  of  the  fly  and  the  elephant.  Never 
argue  with  a  mean  mind. 


ON  POSSIBILITIES  OF  UNION 
If  Presbyter ianism  may  be  summed  up,  philosophically,  as  con- 
sistency of  thought  combined  with  fixity  of  government,  and 
Episcopalianism  may  be  summed  up  as  public  organism  of  re- 
ligious life  with  authority  of  worship,  and  Lutheranism  may  be 
summed  up  as  proclamation  of  the  authoritative  Word  of  God 
bringing  justification,  and  Methodism  may  Ibe  summed  up  as 
practical  organization  for  generating  spiritual  experience  and 
cultivating  Christian  fruits,  these  Anabaptist  reactions  against 
the  historic  ecclesia,  Protestant  as  well  as  Roman,  may  perhaps 
be  summed  up  as  fixity  of  New  Testament  fact  and  ordinance, 
with  liberty  of  interpretation  and  organization.  The  Presbyterian 
idea  is   theological,   logical  and  political.     The  Episcopal   idea  is 


ON    LIVE    QUESTIONS   AND    ISSUES  281 

political,  institutional  and  liturgical.  The  Lutheran  idea  is  theo- 
logical, spiritual  and  practical.  The  Methodist  idea  is  experen- 
tial,  methodic  and  practical.  The  Anabaptist  idea  is  primitive, 
ceremonial   (as  to  ordinances),  without  perspective,  and  practical. 

When  the  Faith  and  Order  movement  toward  union  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  requested  his  co-operation  as  President  of  the 
General  Council,  he  nfrote  to  its  secretary  in  1910  as  follozvs : 

In  the  correspondence  with  the  secretary  of  the  Commission,  I 
said  on  ibehalf  of  the  General  Council,  that  we  agree  with  the 
Commission  "that  the  beginnings  of  unity  are  to  be  found  in  the 
clear  statement  of  those  things  in  which  we  differ,  as  well  as  of 
those  things  in  which  we  are  at  one;"  and  that  we  are  in  accord 
with  the  Commission  in  the  desire  "to  lay  aside  self-will,  and  to 
put  on  the  mind  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus;"  that,  however,  we  do 
not  regard  "Faith"  and  "Order"  as  being  on  the  same  essential 
plane;  that  we  do  not  believe  that  a  Unity  of  "Order,"  or  the 
union  of  the  Church  Visible,  i.  e.,  of  ecclesiastical  denominations, 
is  the  unity  to  which  our  Saviour  referred  in  His  prayer  to  the 
Father;  that  we  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  unity  in  the 
Church  which  is  not  a  unity  in  principle;  that  we  do  not  believe 
that  unity  in  the  Faith  can  be  reached  by  any  agreement  to  agree; 
that  we  do  not  regard  a  unity  of  government  or  of  order,  or  that 
"outward  and  visible  reunion"  of  Christendom  which  is  the  ulti- 
mate object  of  this  Conference,  as  important,  or  as  desirable,  in 
advance  of  a  unity  of  principle;  that  our  branch  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  very  conservative  and  will  not  yield  on  its  principles 
of  faith;  that  we  do  not  look  on  other  Protestants  as  rivals, 
from  whose  ranks  we  should  make  proselytes;  that  we  believe 
in  acting  on  our  faith  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  until  such  a 
time,  if  the  Lord  brings  it  about  as  the  conscience  of  Christians 
be  cleared  to  hold  the  same  faith ;  and  that,  meantime,  we  do  not 
regard  an  externally  divided  Protestantism  as  a  disgrace  to  Chris- 
tendom, in  so  far  as  differences  are  a  matter  of  faith  and  con- 
science; and  that  an  official  invitation  to  co-operate  in  this  move- 
ment would  probably  be  referred  to  a  committee  of  our  body  to 
be  considered  fundamentally  and  report  at  a  later  stage. 


INDEX  OF  PERSONS 


Abrahamson    L.  G.   M.,   D.D •••••••  -  ' '  -^'^S'  ^^^ 

Benze,   C.   T.,   D.D 

Berkemeier,    G.    C,   D.D ••'     ^^^ 

Berkemeyer,   H • '.'.'.'.'.209.    228 

Brandelle,   G.   A.,   D.D ^^^ 

Carlsson,    Erland    ^^ 

Christ,   Father,  Lebanon   Roman  Priest    ^^ 

Croll,    P.    C 3 

Demme,    Dr.    C.    R jj, 

Dunbar,    W.    H.,    D.D 

Egle,  Dr.  W.  H '.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'.      .73 

Esbjorn,   C.    M ^^^ 

Evgen,   Rev.   Dr ^^^ 

Falckner,    Justus     '^'^^    ^g^ 

Fischer,   Etnil   E.,   D.D ^^^ 

Frick,    Rev.    W.    K..    D.D 

Fritchel,    Drs.    Sigmund    and    Gottlieb    ^^^ 

Fry,  F.  F.,  D.D ^ ■.■■.;■.:■.■.:■.;;'.  140 

Geissinger,   D.   H.,   D.D ^        ^gg 

Getz,    Rev.    Arthur    H 

Grandparents,    Deaths   of •  •  • 

Haas,  John  A.  W.,  D.D.,  IX.D.    '°°'   "^ 

Hark,  J.   Max    

Harms,  Claus,   on    1817   Celebration    ^^ 

Hasselquist,   T.    N '       ^^ 

Haupt,  Dr.  Lewis  M ^^ 

Haws,   Mrs.  G.  W 

Hensel,    Hon.    W.    U.,   of  Lancaster    •  ^ 

Hingel,    Catherine    ^^^ 

Hoffman,   Dr.   Emil    " '        „, 

Horn,  Edward  T.,  D.D.,  LL.D "7,     ^^ 

Houck,    Henry    

Hunton,  W.  L.,  D.D o""o""'      J. 

Jacobs,   H.   E.,  D.D.,  LL.D U.  34.   133.    180,    184.  .09.  «4 

Jacobs,    C.    M.,    D.D ••• 

Keiter,  W.  D.  C,  D.D '47.  ^01.  208,  27 

Keyser.    Leander    S.,    D.D "«'    '33.    176 

Knubel,    F.   H.,   D.D..   LL.D '95.    ^o^,   213.    229 

Kohler,    Rev.    Dr.    J ^^ 

Koons,    Prof.,    of    SwaUra     

Krauss,    Prof.    Elmer    F.,    D.D ^7 

Krauth.   Charles  Porterfield,  D.D.,  LL.D '5,  34,   loi 

Krotel,    Gottlieb    F.,    D.D.,   LL.D ' 


284  THEODORE    EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Leibensperger,  A.  W 219 

Lindberg,   C.  E.,  D.D.,  LL.D 209 

Loy,    Martin,    D.D 253 

Luther,    Martin     274 

Lyte,   Prof.    E.   0 70 

Mann,    William    Julius     2 

McKinley,   Sermon   on   Death   of    97 

Miller,   Mr.   E.    Clarence    197 

Morris,    Dr.    J.    G lo 

Muhlenberg,    Dr.    F.    A 15 

Muhlenberg,    Henry    Melchior    274 

Nicum,   J.,    D.D 176 

Norelius,   Dr.   E 163,  173 

Otto,     Robert     i 

Paulsen,  Pastor  of  Kropp,  Germany   1 50 

Pfatteicher,    Ernest    P.,    D.D in 

Proehl,   Prof.,   of   Dubuque    Seminary    157 

Rauschenbusch,  Prof.  Walter    279 

Reinoehl,  George   H no 

Repass,    S.    A.,    D.D 140 

Richards,    Captain    H.    M.    M 96 

Richard,    Prof.    J.    W 175,  180 

Rommel,  Hon.   Edmund    106 

Rubrecht,    G.    Keller     217 

Sadtler,    Dr.    S.    P iS 

Sandt,    G.    W.,    D.D 82 

Schaeffer,   William   Ashmead,    D.D 140 

Schaff,    Dr.    Phillip    2 

Schlegelmilch,    G.    E.,    Esq 181 

Schantz,    F.    J.    F.,    D.D 74,  i39 

Schmauk,    Benjamin    Friedrich    i 

Schmauk,    B.   W.,   Death   of    i ,   3.   4,  109 

Schmauk,    Miss   Emma    7.   244,  245 

Schmauk,   Johann   Gottfried    i 

Schmauk,    Theresa    2,    7.    44 

Schmauk,    Wilhelmina    Catherine    4,  i39 

Schuette,   President  of  Joint   Synod    161 

Seip,  Frank  M no 

Shimer,  Dr.,  Assistant   Superintendent  of   Schools  in  N.   Y.   on    S.   S. 

Lesson    System    90 

Singmaster,    J.    A.,    D.D.,    LL.D 199 

Spaeth,   Adolph,    D.D.,    LL.D 152 

Stahr,  John   F.,   D.D 7° 

Stellhorn,    F.    W.,    D.D 179 

Stewart,   Dr.   George   B.,   of  Auburn,    N.   Y 61 

Stoever,    John    Caspar    274 

Stub,  Rev.  H.  G.,  President  of  N.  L.   C 218 

Stump,   Joseph,    D.D 217 

Taft,    Ex-President    Wm.    H loi 

Thompson,   Dr.   Robert   Ellis   18,   21 


INDEX  285 

Trumbull,  H.  Clay  55 

Voigt,    A.    G.,    D.D.,    LL.D ^o 

Warfield,   Dr.,    of   Lafayette   College    6i 

Waters,    Oren   J.,   M.D 54 

Weller,  H.  A.,  D.D I9S,  201,  208,  217 

Zimmerman,  Hon.  J.  L, '^7 


INDEX  OF  PLACES 


Annville,   Congregation   at    •  •  ■  •  47 

Atlantic    City,   Joint    Committee    on    Quadricentennial    meets    in,    Sept. 

I.    1914    '" 

Buffalo  Convention  of  General  Council    '27 

Catasauqua,   Pa.,    Supply   Pastor   at   Trinity    33 

Chicago,    111.,   Dr.   Schmauk   Presenting    S.    S.    Literature    in    91 

Chicago,   111.,   Meeting  of  National   Council    217 

Dubuque,   Iowa,  General   Synod  at    '75 

Gettysburg,  Theological   Seminary   at    3 

Harrisburg,    Pa 201,   217,  221 

Holland,    Sailed    from,    in    1819    ' 

Lancaster,  Pa 3 

Lebanon,   A   Paradise    40 

Lebanon,  Pa.,  Father  Called  to    6 

Lebanon,    St.    James    Mission    47 

Lebanon,   Trinity   Mission    46 

Milwaukee,    Wis.,    Convention    at     ''7 

Minneapolis,   Minn.,    Convention   at    '°3 

Mt.    Gretna,    Chautauqua    Grounds    at    60 

Mount    Lebanon    Cemetery    224 

New    York,    The    Convention    in    211 

Norristown,   Pa.,   Convention  of  General    Council    ii7 

Orphans'  Home  at  Germantown   3 

Passavant  Hospital,  Milwaukee,  Wis 54 

Pennsylvania,    Student    at    University    of    'S 

Philadelphia,    Ancestors    Landed    in    i 

Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Jubilee  Meeting  of  G.  C 208 

Philadelphia  Seminary,   Student  at   26 

Pittsburgh,  Pa 124,   194.  217 

Salem,  Lebanon,  Pai,  Call  Accepted    39 

Swatara  Institute    '° 

Toledo    Convention    167 

United   States  Commissioner  of   Education   Recognizes  Graded   System  92 

Waterloo     Seminary,     Canada     '54 

Wuertemburg,    Germany,    Home    of    Forebears     1 

Zion   Church,   Philadelphia,   Pa 2 

Zion's-St.   Michael's   Parish,   Philadelphia    3 


286  THEODORE   EMANUEL   SCHMAUK 

GENERAL  INDEX 


Administrative    Probknis    141 

Alliances     263 

Altar    Fellowship    203 

Apologetics,   Interpretation  of   18 1,  185 

Art,    Knowledge    of    Ecclesiastical    113 

Atlantic  Coast  Lutheranism,  Wants  No 169,  200 

Augustana  Brethren  and  Dr.   Schmauk's  Mutual  Attachment   172 

Augustana  College   172 

Augustana  Synod   161,   164,   172,  200,  209,  228 

Author    of    What    Books     234 

Benjamin    Rush's    Account    of    German    Inhabitants    of    Pennsylvania, 

Annotated     234 

Bible  Biography,   1901    89 

Bible   Facts   and   Scenes,    1906    89,  234 

Bible  Geography,  1899   89,  234 

Bible  History,    1898    88,  234 

Bible   Literature,    1903    89 

Bible  Outlines,   1912    89 

Bible  Readings,   1905   89 

Bible   Story,   1897    88 

Bible    Teachings    89 

Books  That  Influenced   22 

Books,    Two    Latest    221 

Born  at  Lancaster,  Pa 6 

Boyhood   Characteristics    8 

British  Propaganda,  Dr.  Schmauk  on   105 

Buoyancy    of    Spirit     221 

Calls  Considered  at  Graduation    37 

Camp     Pastors     196 

Canada  Synod   208 

Catechetical  Outlines  234 

Catholic    Lutheranism     130 

Catholicity,   The   Declaration   on    202 

Centennial   of   Old    Salem    Church    no 

Centennial    Exposition    16 

Centipede    Literary    Society    11 

Chaplains    196 

Chairman  of  Ways  and  Means,  Presides  Over  Consummation  of  Union  212 

Conversation,    "Charms    and    Secrets   of   Good"    51 

Chautauqua,    The    Pennsylvania    60,    64 

Christ   in   the   General    Council    128 

Christ,    Person    of     237 

Church  Book  Committee,  Member  of   81 

Church   Year,   Observance  of    84 

Citizen     94 

Civil   Righteousness,   Co-operation   on   Basis   of    273 


INDEX  287 

Coalitions,    Against    '°^ 

Conwnon  Christianity,   Co-operation  on  the  Basis  of    273 

Common   S.  S.  Literature  for  Lutherans,  Planned,  1897    ■•  ^S 

Common   Service  Book,  Service  Rendered  as  Estimated  by  Dr.  H.  E. 

Jacobs    g 

Common    Ground    for    Relationships    

Community    Welfare    ^6 

Confession  and   Defence  of  Christian   Faith,  Chair  of    183 

Confessional    High   Water   Mark    127 

Confessional   History  of  the  Lutheran   Church    180 

Confessionalism     ■ ^'*7 

Confidential   Dealing    ^'5 

Confessional    Principle    '  79i  234 

Confirmed   at   Fifteen    '^ 

Conservative   Body,  General  Council  the  One    ii9 

Conservatism,     Progressive     ^49 

Constitution,    Fifteen    Point®    to   be    Considered    20» 

Constitution   of  United  Lutheran   Church    20° 

Constitution,    Suggested    Addition   to    '70 

Controversialist,    The   Tricky    280 

Conversation,    Charms    and    Secrets   of   Good    234 

Co-operation   136,   i7S.  204,  216,  258,  263.  267,  269.  270 

Correspondence,    Voluminous   and    Brilliant    219,  220 

Courses    Offered   by   Dr.    Schmauk    '^7 

Critical  and  Anxious  Days    52 

Death,  March  23,   1920    ^^3 

Death,    Serious    Losses    by    '3 

Delaware  Water  Gap  on  Foot   ^^ 

Denominations,    Lutheran    Church's    Relation    to    80 

Differences  and   Difficulties,   Facing    203 

Disunity,    Lutheran     ^55 

Editor   and   Author    79 

Editor   and    Chairman   of    Sunday    School    Work,    1899    84 

Editorial   Survey   of  the   Year    80 

Education,    Symposium    on    "O 

Educator,    Schmauk   as    °° 

Estimates  of  Dr.   Schmauk    229 

Ethics,    Definition    of ■•  •  '°' 

European    Relief     ^^^ 

Evangelism,   Declaration   on   Modern    '21 

Expansion,    Era    of    45 

Faith    and    Practice,    Chicago    Conference    on    218 

Faith,   Matter  of  Deep  Concern,  in    1919    ''° 

Father's   Affection    for    Young   Theodore    7 

Father's  Letter  on  21st   Birthday 3i 

Federal    Council    2°3 

Federal   Council,   Plan   for  a  Lutheran    217 

Federation  and  Unity  of  Unities  Differentiated    198 

Federation,   a   Proposed   Constitution    for    202 

Federation  Movement   '7'.  200 


288  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Fellowship    138,  264 

First    Sermon    to    Salem    Congregation    43 

Foreign   Church,    The    Lutheran    Church    not    a    107 

Foreign  Mission  Field,  Division  Advocated  by  Swedes    167 

Founders,   Passing  Away  of  General   Council    118 

Four    Points    253 

Freedom    of    Action    Asked    and    Guaranteed     215 

Funeral     Services     223 

General    Conference    of    Lutherans,     1904     124 

General   Council    Golden   Jubilee    208 

General  Council,  Permanency  of   120 

General    Council,    President   of    81,  117 

General    Council    Representatives    at    National    Council    Meeting,    Chi- 
cago,   Sept.    6,     1918     217 

General  Council  Sunday  School  Plans  Date  Back  to  1869 85 

General   Synod,   Co-operation   with    133,  174 

General  Synod,  Delegate  to  114 

General   Synod   Invited   to   Co-operate   in   Quadricentennial    193 

General   Synod  in  Washington  in   191 1    135 

Germans,    Dr.    Schmauk    and    the    147 

Germans,   Keeping  in   Sympathy  with  Merger    207 

German    Synods,   Attitude   of    200 

German    Translations    89 

Graded   Instruction    Plans   Formulated    in    1888    84 

Graded  System  Completion  Announced  at  Lima,  O ii6 

Graded    Sunday    School    Instruction,    Pioneer    in     84 

Graded   System,   Development  of    88 

Heart-Broken,    Booklet   on   Death    of    Sister    45,  234 

Heart  Glow   Papers    50 

Historical    Precedent   Against   Interdenominational    Teaching    274 

Historian,    Schmauk    as    66 

History   of   Old    Salem    Church    iii 

Home   Mission   Board's  Actions  in   the   Northwest    168 

How  to  Teach  in  Sunday  School   234 

Hypnotism 45,  234 

Indicator,   Founder   and    Uditor   of    29 

In    Mother's    Arms,     1910     90,  234 

Improvements    in    Graded    Instruction    Planned    92 

Influences    During    Student   Days    24 

Ingersoll,    Sermons  on    45 

Inspiration    at   Pittsburgh,    Articles    on    125 

Interchurch    World    Movement    221 

Interdenominational  Teaching  and  Preaching  Not  Possible  to  Lutherans  273 

International  Lessons  Begun  in  1873    86 

International    System,    Dr.    Schmauk    on    Basic    Difference    86 

Iowa  and   Ohio   Theses   at   Toledo    160 

Iowa    Synod,    Relations    with     156 

Issues  and   Engagements  of   1919    220 

Japanese    Translations    89 

Joint   Synod   of   Ohio    179 


INDEX  289 

Kindergarten,    The    Christian     234 

Lancaster    Convention    on    Quadricentennial     193 

Languages,    S.    S.    Literature   in    Other    85 

Life,  Closing  of  a  Strenuous   219 

Lebanon    County   Historical    Society    74 

Lebanon  High    School   Graduates,   Historical   Address   to    66 

Lebanon    Valley,    Early    Churches    of    234 

Letter    to    Father,    Oct.    18,    1880     27 

Liberty   Loan    Drives,    Orator    for    I04 

Library,  Work  in   Seminary    28 

Lima    Resolutions    on     Co-operation     iiS 

Literary  Activities  Begin    49 

Literary  Editor  of  The  Lutheran    83 

Lodge,    The    256 

Luther   and   the   New   Theology    248 

Lutheran    Church    Review,   Editor   of    79 

Lutheran    Church,    an    American    Church     106 

Lutheranism   in   America  Classified    176 

Manitoba   Synod    208 

Marriage  of  Parents    3 

Melanchthon  and   the   Church   Fathers    80 

Men's    Organizations     '44 

Merger,  Dr.  Schmauk's  Ideal  of  Stated   205 

Merger,   Working    for    207 

Minneapolis    Convention    on    Quadricentennial    192 

Minnesota    Conference    of    the    Augustana    Synod    163 

Missions,    Call    as    Superintendent    of    47 

Mission    Chapels    46 

Missouri    Synod    196,  253 

Mother,    Death    of     i39 

Movements,   Great   and   General    203 

National  Lutheran  Council   216,  218 

Nature    Lover    '3 

Negative  Criticism  S8,  234 

Negative   Critics,   Tendency   Toward   Among   Younger    Scholars    124 

Negative    Theology     245 

Neighborliness     262 

New   Theology,   Luther   and   the    248 

New    York    Ministerium    3o8 

Norelius    Resolution,    Disposition    of    165 

Ohio    Synod     253 

Organ  and  Its  History   113 

Parents,    Companions    7 

Participation   in   the   Common   Welfare,   Stages  of    262 

Pastoral    Work    47.  219 

Pastorate,  Early  Pastorate  with  Father  in  Lebanon   37 

Patriot  and   Public   Speaker    94 

Pennsylvania  Germans,  Defence  of  69 

Pennsylvania-German    Society,    Organization    of    70 

Pennsylvania,    History   of   the    Lutheran    Church   in    334 

T 


290  THEODORE   EMANUEL    SCHMAUK 

Pennsylvania    Ministerium's   Steps   to    Care   for    Soldiers    195 

Personality,    Towering     212 

Philosophy,    Under   Dr.    Krauth    21 

Physician's    Advice     223 

Politician,    Not   a    210 

Positions  Held  in  the  Church    183,  233 

Positions    Outside    of    the    Churc'h    234 

President  of  The  United  Lutheran   Church,   Election  of  First 212 

Primary    Department,    The    Three    Grade    89 

Prize  as  Popular  Pastor  Refused   46 

Prize    Contests,    Competes    in    20 

Providence,    Two    Great    Lessons    of    275 

Public   Schools,   Interest  in    95 

Pulpit    Fellowship     203,  256 

Pulpit,    Prevalent    Errors    in     80 

Pulpits,    Lutheran    for    Lutheran    Ministers    253 

Quadricentennial    172,    192,  193 

Quadricentennial    Committee,    Dr.    Schmauk    Chairman    of    194 

Questions  and    Issues,   Dr.   Schmauk  on   Live    23s 

Red    Cross    Workers     196 

Reformation,    Quadricentennial    of    192 

Relationships,   Lutheran   Churc'h   and    External    262 

Religious    Education    and    Child    Psychology,    Biography    231 

Resolutions  in  Diary   12 

Revival    Movements,    Dangers    to    Lutherans    in    203,  260 

Salem,    Lebanon,    History    of    234 

Salem,    Memorial    Chapel     1 1 1 

Salvation,  Lutheran  Conception   of   246 

Schieren   Professorship    184 

School,    Young    Schmauk  at    8 

Scriptures,   General   Council   and   the    132 

Scripture  Lesson  Quarterlies  for  Seniors  on  Church  Year  Plan 85 

Secret    Orders    203 

Seminary    Board,    President    of    182,  184 

Seminary  Professor i8i,  183 

Sermon   at   Funeral    224 

Sermon,    Dr.    Schmauk's   Last    221 

Social   Problems,  The   Church   and    277 

Societies    Un-Christian    258 

Sorrow,    Expressions    of     228 

Spanish   Translations   89 

Spiritual    Life,    Influences    Which    Deepened    the    35 

Sunday  School  Board,  Strenuous  Meeting 221 

Sunday    School    Graded    System,    Revision    of.    Weighed   Heavily    ....  220 

Sunday   School   Leader   79 

Sunday    School    Times,    Contributor    to    55 

Sunday   School   Work    221,  231 

Swedes,   Efforts   to   Influence    207 

Swedish     Translations     89 

Teacher  in  Allentown  High  School   33 


INDEX  291 

Teaching,  Methods  of   '^^ 

Teacher   Training   Quarterly,    1914    '^ 

Telugu    Translations    ^' 

Text  of  Last   Sermon   ^^' 

Timidity    as    a    Child    ' 

Trinity,  The  Doctrine  of  the   ^4° 

Unification    or    Federation,    Which    '^6 

Union    ^^4 

Union,    Definite    Plan    for    '98 

Union,    Difficulties  in    the    way   of    '^^^ 

Union,  Drs.  Schmauk  and  Jacobs  Opposed  to  Sudden    •  •  •  i99 

Union   Favored  in   Meeting  April    18    196,  i99 

Union,    Influence   in   Meeting,   April    18    '99 

Union,    Lutheran    ^5' 

Union,    Possibilities    of    280 

United  Lutheran  Church   in  America   Declared  a  Reality    3'2 

United   Lutheran   Churdh,   Testing   Period   of    220 

United  Synod,   South   Invited  to  Co-operate    '93 

Uniting  the  Whole  Lutheran  Church,  A  Far-reaching  Question   201 

Unity     203.  26s 

Vagaries  and  Unsettled   States,  Matters  of  Concern    220 

Versatility    Illustrated    ^3 

Village    Blacksmith    Letters    49 

Voice   in    Speech    and    Song    5i,  234 

War  Commission,  Origin  of  the  Lutheran    '95 

War,    Dr.    Schmauk    During    the    i°4 

Wartburg  Castle,  Ivy  from   ' '  3 

War,   the  World  War,   Effect  on   Quadricentennial   Plans    i94 

Ways   and    Means   Committee,    Chairman   of    207 

Will,  Freedom  of  the   ^44 

Women's   Missionary    Society    '4^ 

Women's    Organizations       '44 

Worker,    a    Methodical     219 

World,   The  Lutheran,  on   Buffalo   Convention    i34 

Y.  M.   C.  A *°3 


DATE  DUE 

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